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Mike Pence's role in the Trump administration

Mike Pence's role in the Trump administration has been forced more into the spotlight with the president's illness from coronavirus. Here's a look back at Pence's career.

Dwight Adams, dwight.adams@indystar.com

At a Thursdayevening event in Simi Valley, California, former Vice President Mike Pence appeared to use his strongest language yet on the deadly U.S. Capitol riot that endangered his life and the lives of fellow lawmakers and Hill staff.

"There's almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American President. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone." Pence said, reasserting that he had no authority to rejectany electoral votes certified by states, as insisted by former President Donald Trump.

More: How Mike Pence's new Carmel home compares to the last one he owned

"I understand the disappointment many feel about the last election I can relate," Pence said, to some chuckles in the room."I was on the ballot. But you know, there's more at stake than our party and our political fortunes in this moment."

His words emerged as a slow, but sharp, move away from how Pence has previouslytalked about the Capitol riot.

At his first post-vice presidencypublic address in late April, Pence remained silent on the traumatic events of Jan. 6, when rioters chanted "Hang Mike Pence" andBring out Pence."

Pence South Carolina speech:Praise for Trump, attacks on Biden, silence on Jan. 6

He spoke about the riot again in early June, in front of a crowd in New Hampshire, this time chalking up the ensuing tension withTrump as something where they might just never "see eye to eye."The former vice president did call it a "dark day" in American history, but he alsoblamedDemocrats and news media for what he called an outsized scrutiny over the day.

Former VP Mike Pence: Trump and I may never 'see eye to eye' on Jan. 6 Capitol attack

In another June speech,thoughhe was not speaking about the riot, some hecklers at the Faith & Freedom coalition in Floridabooed him and shouted "traitor" as he introduced himselfas he often does as "a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order."

Though Pence is trying to reassert and justify his actions to certify the results of the 2020election, as he was expected to do by the Constitution, the day remains the only signal of distance between him and Trump.

Other than not seeing "eye to eye" on Jan. 6, Pence has continued to praise Trump and his role in the administration throughout his recent public speeches. Thursday evening, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, Pence applauded the former president for being one of a kind and a disruptor.

"President Trump taught us what Republicans can accomplish when leaders stand firm on conservative principles and don't back down," Pence said, touting the administration's record on unemployment, trade deals and border security.

With the building momentum of the conservative movement, Pence says there is no going back."

IndyStar reporter Sarah Nelson contributed to this report.

Contact IndyStar reporter Rashika Jaipuriar atrjaipuriar@gannett.comandfollow her on Twitter@rashikajpr.

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'Un-American': Mike Pence uses strongest language yet on refusal to deny election results - IndyStar

Before the fated election that delivered a blow to then-president Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence, there was reportedly some tension brewing between the former VP and Trumps son, Donald Trump Jr., on the campaign trail.

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Both men were slated to speak ahead of President Trump at the campaign stop in February 2020. Donald Jr. was supposed to introduce Pence, but the crowd was so loudly chanting, Forty-six! Forty-six!, referring to supporters wanting Donald Jr. to become the next president, it brought the event to a halt.

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One step at a time, Donald Jr. told the adoring crowd, reported Daily Mail. Let's worry about 2020. That's all we've got to focus on, right? Let's keep winning.

After introducing Pence, the crowd suddenly went silent, according to Bender, with no forty-six chants. Pences communications director noticed the deafening silence and remarked, Thats funny.

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Following his speech to the crowd, Pence made an awkward joke about the moment to Donald Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, the book states.

A reportedly embarrassed Pence strategy team made it a rule that the former VP was never again to follow Donald Jr. onstage at a rally. He's just a hard act to follow, Pences political strategist Marty Obst told the Trump campaign.

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The reported divide between Pence and Trump supporters comes after Pence has increasingly publicly tried to separate himself from his former boss, and fired back at Republicans who falsely claimed he could have overturned Joe Bidens 2020 election win.

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Speaking during an event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Thursday, June 24, Pence who many believe is gearing up for a White House bid of his own in 2024 asserted that he did his constitutional duty when he led the certification of the election results.

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Now there are those in our party who believe that in my position as presiding officer over the joint session that I possessed the authority to reject or return electoral votes certified by the states, he told the crowd, OK! reported. But the Constitution provides the vice president with no such authority before the joint session of Congress.

Pence continued: The truth is, there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the president. The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone.

More:
'Hard Act To Follow': Mike Pence Jealous Of Attention Donald Trump Jr. Was Getting On Campaign Trail, New Book Claims - OK!

If theres one person whose lead you probably dont want to follow, its Rudy Giuliani. And if theres one person whose lead you most definitely do notnever, ever, under any circumstanceswant to follow, its Drunk Rudy Giuliani. Yet according to Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency, the newest book by Michael Wolff, premier chronicler of the stupidity of the Trump administration, it was a perpetually hammered Giuliani who convinced Donald Trump that Mike Pence had the power to ignore the votes of more than 81 million Americans and overturn the presidential election and declare Trump the winner.

New York Magazine published an excerpt from Wolffs upcoming book, which seems to confirm that the final months of Trumps presidency were a Groundhog Day of unhinged political strategies and a complete lack of understanding of American democracy. Making matters worse, according to Wolff, was that the then-president had been all but abandoned by his closest advisers in his final dayswith the exception of Rudy, who was apparently drinking heavily and in a constant state of excitation, often almost incoherent in his agitation and mania. You dont say?

Almost everyone who remained around the president understood that he, along with Giuliani, did in fact actually believe that there was yet a decent chance of upsetting the electoral count and having Trump declared the Electoral College winner or, failing that, prolonging the election and returning the fight to the disputed states. The presidents aides (and family) understood, too, that he was the only one (along with Giuliani, which only made the situation more alarming) in any professional political sphere to believe this. Hencealthough they did not call it such and tried to see it as more nuancedderangement.

There had been hardly a waking hour in the past 48 during which he and Giuliani had not been on the phone in pent-up nervousness and excitement over the coming battle in Congress on January 6. They were two generals poring over a map of the battlefield. Both men, egged on by hypotheticals ever nearer to fantasy and after exhausting all other options, had come to take it as an article of faith that the vice-president could simply reject Biden electors in favor of Trump ones and thereby hand the election to Trump; or, falling short of that, that the vice-president could determine that a state legislature ought to give further consideration to possible discrepancies in the states vote and send back the questioned electors for a reconsideration of their certification.

There is no question, none at all, that the VP can do this. Thats a fact. The Constitution gives him the authority not to certify. It goes back to the state legislatures, said Giuliani, as though on a loop. He kept repeating this to the president and to the others who were part of the continual conversation on his cell phone.

Had the described scenario been set to the Benny Hill theme song, it would have been funny. Unfortunately, it was all too real, and is what led to the Capitol riots on January 6th. And its Giulianis actions in those days that have caused him to be stripped of his license to practice law in the state of New York. While we sit and anxiously await seeing how this embarrassing chapter in American history will ultimately end, Wolff can fill in some of the horrifying details.

Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency will be published on July 27, 2021.

(Via New York Magazine)

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Report: Drunk Giuliani Told Trump That Pence Could Decide The Election - UPROXX

Amid chaos at the White House as the coronavirus pandemic worsened, Donald Trump took to referring derisively to the Covid taskforce chaired by his vice-president as that fucking council that Mike has.

The revelation about the presidents contempt for his key advisory body is one among many in a new book, Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administrations Response to the Pandemic That Changed History, which is published in the US on Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy.

Previous revelations from the book have included that Trump wanted to send infected Americans to Guantnamo Bay and that he mused about John Bolton, his national security adviser, being taken out by Covid.

Authors Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, both Washington Post reporters, also report in depth on how the extraordinary influence of outside consultants to Trump, including the controversial Stephen Moore, relentlessly undermined the work of the presidents scientific advisers.

The book is a deeply reported account of the beginning of a pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 in the US and a federal response hamstrung by incompetence and infighting.

Trumps derisive term for his taskforce, the authors write, was a signal that he wished it would go away and didnt want anyone to exert leadership.

Many on the taskforce didnt want the responsibility either, fearful of the consequences.

Under the chairmanship of Vice-President Mike Pence who is shown resisting his own appointment to replace the outmatched health secretary, Alex Azar the taskforce was led by Dr Deborah Birx, a US army physician widely praised for her role in the fight against Aids but whose star waned under Trump.

Abutaleb and Paletta portray Birx as a confident leader unafraid to challenge powerful men, but also someone who overplayed her hand when she decided to praise and flatter Trump as a way to manage him.

Of an interview Birx gave to the rightwing Christian Broadcasting Network, in which she praised Trumps ability to analyse and integrate data, the authors write: It was the kind of sycophancy one expected from Pence or [treasury secretary] Steve Mnuchin, not a government scientist.

The authors also say Birx worked well with Pence and was admired by fellow workers, though by April 2020, the chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was deriding the taskforce as useless and broken.

Birx served until the end of the Trump administration in January this year. Unlike her fellow taskforce member Dr Anthony Fauci, now chief medical adviser to Joe Biden, she did not remain in public service.

Abutaleb and Paletta also report that in March, as cases spiraled and the US death toll passed 1,000, unofficial adviser Stephen Moore, Trumps emissary [from] the conservative establishment strode into the Oval Office to convince the president to end shutdowns and get the economy moving.

Moore is an economist who in 2019 was nominated by Trump to the board of the Federal Reserve, only to withdraw after outlets led by the Guardian reported controversies in his past.

He told Abutaleb and Paletta Trumps controversial and soon dropped promise to reopen the US economy by Easter was the smart thing to do, because the economic costs of this are mounting and theres not a lot of evidence that lockdowns are working to stop the spread.

Lockdowns to stop the spread of Covid-19 remain in use around the world.

Moore is also quoted attacking Fauci, a common target for conservative ire over subjects including mask-wearing and the origins of Covid in China.

Fauci is the villain here, Moore says. He has the Napoleon complex, and he thinks he is the dictator who could decide how to run the country.

Moore also says conservative activists he advised as they staged protests against lockdowns and masks and who he famously claimed were successors of the great civil rights protester Rosa Parks asked: Whats wrong with this fucking Fauci? Sometimes theyd call him Fucky, not Fauci.

Originally posted here:
Trump contempt for White House Covid taskforce revealed in new book - The Guardian

American News Jun 30, 2021 9:57 PM EST

The identity of the person who fatally shot Capitol Hill rioter and US Armed Forces veteran Ashli Babbitt still remains unknown to the public and her family, even amidst an ongoing lawsuit from the family to discover the identity of said shooter.

The identity of the person who fatally shot Capitol Hill rioter and US Armed Forces veteran Ashli Babbitt on January 6 still remains unknown to the public as well as her family, even amidst an ongoing lawsuit from the family to discover the identity of said shooter.

The Spectator, a UK based outlet, is floating the idea that a Secret Service agent, one of whom that was in former Vice President Mike Pences security detail, was the one who allegedly shot her.

"Sources close to and within the intelligence community tell Cockburn that Babbitt was actually shot by a member of then-vice president Mike Pences protective detail," writes The Spectator. Cockburn is the outlets political gossip columnist that engages in "Mischief, mayhem and Washington gossip," according to their website.

"The VPs detail, of course, is provided by US Secret Service, not the Capitol Police. One person asserted to Cockburn over drinks in DC that this is 'basically an open secret' in the intelligence community," they continue.

Law enforcement sources told The Spectator that the shooter, who was suspected as being a Capitol Hill officer, was identified as such "in order to protect the reputation of the Secret Service."

Another theory considered by Cockburn is the idea that the shooter was suspected to be a Capitol Hill officer because it's an "attempt to protect Pence from further anger or threats from Capitol rioters who wanted him to refuse to certify the results of the election on January 6."

Officers are usually named when involved in a shooting, but "the unnamed officers lawyer says that his client is being kept anonymous due to threats against his life," wrote The Spectator.

Babbitts husband, Aaron Babbitt, is suing the Metropolitan Police Department for $10 million for the identity of her shooter after the Justice Department ruled that it would not pursue criminal charges against the shooter.

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The Spectator floats theory that Ashli Babbitt was shot by Mike Pence's protective detail - The Post Millennial