Sunday shows – Trump-Pence division in the spotlight
by The Hill staff
Former Vice President Mike Pence rebuke of former President Trump for suggesting he had the ability to overturn the results of the 2020 election reverberated on Sunday, with multiple guests discussing the topic on the morning political shows.
The threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine was also in the spotlight, in addition to the Olympics in Beijing.
Vice President Pence last week gave a more direct rebuke of former President Donald Trump’s election claims because the former president’s claims that Pence could have overturned the results “merited response,” Pence’s former chief of staff said Sunday.
Marc Short said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Pence had been “crystal clear from day one” that he lacked the authority to reject the election results on Jan. 6, 2021. And while Pence has said as much over the past year, it wasn’t until Friday that he explicitly said Trump was “wrong” to suggest otherwise.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Sunday said “vice presidents can’t simply decide not to certify an election,” breaking with former President Trump after he suggested that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the ability to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Sunday said “it can be uncomfortable” to not align with her own political party during a discussion about the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) resolution characterizing the Capitol riot as “legitimate political discourse.”
“We are in the window, Any day now. Russia could take military action against Ukraine or it could be a couple of weeks from now or Russia could choose to take the diplomatic path instead,” national security advisor Jake Sullivan said.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Sunday said the U.S. is “still working to discourage the Russians from making the wrong choice and choosing confrontation,” as concerns rise that Moscow is planning an incursion against Ukraine.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Sunday said China’s decision to have a Uyghur athlete help deliver the Olympic flame in the opening ceremony for the 2022 Winter Games was an effort “to distract us from the real issue at hand that Uyghur’s are being tortured.”
