Trump says committee should probe his ex-VP

Former President Donald Trump has blasted the House committee investigating the January 6 riot, and his latest critiques also call for the “political hacks, liars, and traitors” seated on the committee to investigate former Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California).

Trump blasted the committee for working “so feverishly to alter the Electoral College Act so that a vice president cannot ensure the honest results of the election, when just one year ago they said that ‘the vice president has absolutely no right to ensure the true outcome or results of an election.’”

The former president has blasted Pence multiple times for his actions on January 6, claiming the former vice president’s position overseeing the election results gave him the authority to halt the certification and send some ballots back to states where fraud had been alleged. 

While Trump and many supporters continue to claim the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, no proof of the widespread nature of the fraud he refers to has officially been discovered. Pence has said he fulfilled his constitutional obligation on January 6, though he admitted recently the day tore a hole in his relationship with Trump and the two haven’t spoken since last summer. 

Trump also targeted Pelosi in his statement, alleging the California congresswoman waited far too long to bring in extra security to push back against protesters entering the Capitol building. 

“If Nancy Pelosi, who is in charge of Capitol security, had taken my recommendation and substantially increased security, there would have been no ‘January 6’ as we know it!” Trump said. 

He then called on the “Unselect Committee” to focus their investigative efforts on Pelosi and Pence. 

“The Unselect Committee should be investigating why Nancy Pelosi did such a poor job of overseeing security and why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!” the former president wrote. 

Trump was similarly critical of Pence in a Sunday statement, arguing he had the authority to “overturn” the election results on January 6, but refused to do so. 

Trump’s latest statement follows media reports that Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, is among the growing group of former White House staffers that has been questioned by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot.