Marc Short, who was chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, spat fire at Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Monday after the congressman told students at a conservative conference over the weekend that Pence “will never be president.”
“Well, I don’t know if Mike Pence will run for president 2024,” Short told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “But I don’t think Matt Gaetz will have an impact on that. In fact, I’d be surprised if he was still voting. It’s more likely he’ll be in prison for child sex trafficking by 2024. And I’m actually surprised that Florida law enforcement still allows him to speak to teenage conferences like that. So I’m not too worried about Matt Gaetz, thanks.”
During a speech at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday, Gaetz told the cheering crowd that “Our America is proudly ultra-MAGA, not some low-energy roadside RINO safari.” (RINO, one of Trump’s favorite terms for Republicans who won’t do his bidding, stands for “Republican in name only.”)
“On that note, let me just say what everybody here knows. Mike Pence will never be president,” Gaetz continued. “Nice guy; not a leader.”
Gaetz is under federal investigation for alleged sex trafficking and statutory rape of a 17-year-old girl. He was also one of at least five GOP lawmakers who requested pardons from Donald Trump in the final weeks of his presidency for their roles in helping him attempt a coup to stay in the White House.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified last month at a House hearing on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that Gaetz had sought a broader blanket pardon that would cover “any and all things.”
Short has been cooperating with the House select committee’s investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The committee recently revealed that rioters came within 40 feet of Pence before he was evacuated from the Capitol, where he had been presiding over the congressional certification of the Electoral College vote. Some rioters were calling for Pence to be hung after Trump publicly attacked him for refusing to try to unilaterally reject the electoral count declaring Joe Biden’s presidential victory. Some members of Pence’s security detail were reportedly so afraid for their lives during the riot that they called their families to say goodbye.
