Former Vice President Mike Pence claimed he doesn’t remember whether White House officials told him of the fake elector plot in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd, in an interview with Pence on Sunday, asked the former vice president to share what he knew of the plot prior to the insurrection at the Capitol.
“I’d just heard what was being talked about in the press at the time, but I thought it was important,” Pence said.
Todd, earlier in the interview, noted that Pence told NBC News this month that he “didn’t know a lot about efforts to secure fake electors” on Jan. 6. The host went on to read an excerpt from Pence’s book describing asking the Senate parliamentarian on Jan. 3, 2021: “Are there any alternate electors from any state?”
Pence told Todd he raised the question with the parliamentarian because he was “hearing rumors” about the plot.
“I did ask the parliamentarian very directly, Chuck. I asked her because I was hearing rumors, I was reading in the newspaper that there were alternate electors,” he said.
“I just, I asked her point-blank are there any other electors from any state and she said there was not.”
Todd interjected to ask Pence whether anybody in Trump’s White House told him about the plot.
“I don’t recall that. I just remember hearing it in the public,” Pence replied.
“And I wanted a definitive answer whether or not the parliamentarian had received any additional electoral votes. She had not. So, as you know, I — we actually changed the language as those Electoral College votes were recorded.”