Ex-Pence chief of staff says Trump's advisers were 'basically snake oil salesmen'

The advisers working with former President Donald Trump after the 2020 presidential election "were basically snake oil salesmen," Marc Short said on Sunday's Meet the Press, leading Trump to believe that there was some way former Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the results.

Short served as Pence's chief of staff, and was with him at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack. In an address on Friday to the conservative Federalist Society, Pence pushed back at Trump's false assertion that he could have decided the election, saying, "President Trump is wrong." Short backed Pence up on Meet the Press, telling host Chuck Todd that Pence made it clear from the beginning he could not overturn the election and never intended to delay certification of the results.

Trump, Short continued, "had many bad advisers, who were basically snake oil salesmen giving him really random and novel ideas as to what the vice president could do. But our office, you know, researched that and recognized that was never an option." Short added that he didn't know if Trump sought out this advice because it's what he wanted to hear.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Short said he thinks the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack is "partisan," but he testified before its members because he was subpoenaed. "I don't know how often you've been subpoenaed, Chuck, and if you view that as cooperation, but I view that as following the law," he said.