Trump's Own Vice President Said It: Traitor To The Constitution
LOSER will be striking back.
Mike Pence on Wednesday launched his run for president, making his most sweeping case yet against Donald Trump’s fitness for office and beginning an extraordinary campaign against his former boss more than two years after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol upended their relationship.
In his kickoff speech, the former vice president hit Trump on several fronts, including the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss. He spoke at length on this point, advancing an argument that Trump is no longer qualified for the presidency as he explained his rationale for challenging the man he served loyally for four years.
“I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again,” Pence said.
He called Jan. 6 “a tragic day in the life of our nation” and said “Trump’s words were reckless and endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol.” Pence added, “President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution, and I always will.”
It’s exceedingly rare for a former vice president to take on a president he served under and ran alongside, and Pence faces an awkward task of promoting his experience while arguing he is a strong alternative to Trump. That challenge came into focus Wednesday.
Since they left office, there has been a stark divide between Pence and Trump over the Jan. 6 attack, in which a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on the day lawmakers gathered to certify the electoral college results, some chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!” The aftermath of the 2020 election marked the only time Pence broke publicly with Trump during his four years as vice president.
Pence has picked his spots for voicing direct criticism of Trump over Jan. 6, choosing to delve into the issue on Wednesday much more directly than have many of his rivals.
“I understand the disappointment that many still feel about the outcome of the 2020 election. I can relate. I was on the ballot, but I had no right to overturn the election. And Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024,” Pence said Wednesday.
Leading up to that day, Trump repeatedly made false claims that the election had been stolen and used incendiary language at a rally near the White House that morning. Yet, Trump has claimed the violence he inspired that day was Pence’s fault. “Had he sent the votes back to the legislatures, they wouldn’t have had a problem with Jan. 6, so in many ways you can blame him for Jan. 6,” Trump said in March.
Mark Meadows pleads guilty as part of immunity deal against Trump: report
Mark Meadows, the former Trump White House Chief of Staff and former North Carolina Republican Congressman, reportedly has accepted a plea deal from the Dept. of Justice in exchange for pleading guilty to federal charges.
According to The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg, Meadows has also been co-operating with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigators, which several legal experts have recently suggested was likely happening.
“Over the course of the last year, grand jurors have heard testimony from numerous associates of the ex-president, including nearly every employee of Mar-a-Lago, former administration officials who worked in Mr Trump’s post-presidential office and for his political operation, and former high-ranking administration officials such as his final White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows,” Feinberg reports at The Independent.
“Mr Meadows has already given evidence before the grand jury and is said to be cooperating with the investigation into his former boss,” the article, published Wednesday afternoon, states. “It is understood that the former North Carolina congressman will plead guilty to several federal charges as part of a deal for which he has already received limited immunity in exchange for his testimony.”
“The Independent has learned that prosecutors are ready to ask grand jurors to approve an indictment against Mr Trump for violating a portion of the US criminal code known as Section 793, which prohibits ‘gathering, transmitting or losing’ any ‘information respecting the national defence,'” The Independent adds.
In early June, former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean remarked, “Meadows has a really good lawyer, a former deputy AG, who could guide him through cooperation and a minimal plea deal of some sort.”
That attorney, George Terwilliger, played coy when asked about his client’s possible grand jury testimony. Terwilliger told The New York Times in an article published late Tuesday, “Without commenting on whether or not Mr. Meadows has testified before the grand jury or in any other proceeding, Mr. Meadows has maintained a commitment to tell the truth where he has a legal obligation to do so.”
Former Deputy Asst. Attorney General Harry Litman on Tuesday said, “I’ve already observed Terwilliger’s skill in representing Meadows. But if he got him an immunity deal–as opposed to a guilty plea + promise to cooperate deal–he is a wizard. [Would] think that Meadows is way too culpable to merit a pass, but if Smith [couldn’t] make case w/o him…”
U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), a former JAG attorney, tweeted on Tuesday:
“Mark Meadows had three options: 1. Take the Fifth Amendment. 2. Voluntarily cooperate. 3. Cooperate because he was given immunity or a plea deal. Based on the public reporting, it appears he did 2 or 3 above. This makes it more likely Donald Trump will be indicted, again.”
