Former US Vice President Mike Pence ultimately thwarted his former boss Donald Trump and his allies' plans to stay in power by refusing to reject the electoral votes of the states. According to a report by Politico, Pence was able to shut down the plans of his former boss by simply adding to the vice-presidential spiel in counting electoral votes in Congress.
Politico reports that Pence's aides revealed that the now-former vice president wanted to send a message to Trump and his allies, who have been pressuring him to follow with their plan to stage a coup and stay in power. While it was already known that Pence made changes to the vice-presidential spiel in the counting of electoral votes, the former vice president's aides revealed the story of why Pence chose to do it.
This was in line with the fake electors' scheme, with Trump and his allies choosing loyalists in five swing states to turn in signed certificates falsely claiming that they were the state's electors, "duly elected" members of the Electoral College.
Trump wanted Pence to introduce those slates of electors on January 6 in order to block Joe Biden's electoral victory. Pence never intended to bring in the false electors and knew that he was legally not allowed to do so, according to his top aide Marc Short.
"It was a transparent effort to get in front of any accusations that there was any other slate that could've been legally accepted," Short told the outlet. "We were trying to be transparent with the American people. We figured there'd be confusion in this."
According to Short, Pence actively had a hand in drafting the specific language he used on January 6. The then-vice president was also being targeted by the pro-Trump mob for his refusal to do Trump's bidding.
Pence has also publicly broken from his former boss when it came to the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Last week, Pence visited Ukrainian refugees at the border the country shares with Poland. Pence, who was with his wife Karen Pence, traveled to Poland with Samaritan's Purse, a Christian evangelical humanitarian organization.