GOP insider recalls time in White House

Aug. 31—Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence's Chief of Staff who was in Terre Haute on Tuesday to raise funds for local GOP candidates, spoke to the Tribune-Star about his time in the White House.

Short is friends with Vigo County Republican Party Chairman Randy Gentry. "I got the chance to work with Randy in the White House," Short said. "When you work for Vice President Pence, he wanted his staff to embody servant leadership, and it's hard to find somebody to do that better than Randy. There was hardly any task you could assign to Randy that was too big or too small, and he was always willing to dive in.

"When Randy asked if I'd be willing to come out and help his local county GOP, I was certainly willing to do that," he added.

Short was Pence's Communications Advisor during the 2016 campaign, then served as President Donald Trump's director of legislative affairs from 2017-2018 before rejoining Pence as the Vice President's Chief of Staff in 2019. While a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Pence named him chief of staff for the House Republican Conference in 2009 and hired him as a consultant for his 2012 Indiana gubernatorial campaign.

His first job in politics was as Oliver North's finance director during his unsuccessful 1994 Virginia run for the Senate.

"I've had a chance to work with some amazing public servants, and I've learned a lot from being an apprentice to them," Short said. "There's been mountaintops to that; there's going to be valleys, too. The consequential parts were when I was President Trump's legislative director, so the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices or significant legislation like the passage of the tax relief package of 2017 are hallmarks."

He added, "Serving with Vice President Pence, we had many opportunities to travel abroad on missions that the President asked him to lead. Certainly, January 6 is going to be something that will always be a defining moment in his career, and for those of us who served him."

Short also served with Pence on the White House Coronavirus Task Force in 2020.

"That is a once-in-a-century type pandemic," he reflected. "President Trump and Vice President Pence's sense of urgency did contribute to us producing three vaccines within one year, which was a remarkable achievement."

During Task Force meetings, Short recalled butting heads with Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since the Reagan Administration, who recently announced his retirement plans.

"I think Tony and I argued more than any other two people in those meetings, but we were always friends, and when I got COVID, Tony called me multiple times at home to check in on me," Short said. "He's dedicated his life to protecting others."

Of his bout with COVID-19, Short said, "I was sick but fortunately didn't need any additional medical treatment."

Short was in the Capitol Building with Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, when insurrectionists stormed the building, some chanting "Hang Mike Pence," though they didn't hear those threats.

"You could look out the window and see people gathered outside but you couldn't hear much," Short said. "By the time that they had penetrated the Capitol and the Secret Service had evacuated us, we really weren't able to hear that."

Pence's actions that day were entirely justified by the Constitution, Short added.

"His job is to open and count the certified returns from the state," he said. "The legal battles and recounts had been exhausted by the time you reached January 6. For Republicans who wish the Vice President has acted differently that day, there have been 250 years where no Vice President has ever exerted such authority [in overturning the electoral count], and I don't think they would relish Kamala Harris in 2024 throwing out Texas electoral votes because she would now have that new authority."

He added, "The President and the Vice President obviously disagreed on that day. It had been well communicated to both teams the way the Vice President saw his role that day. It was not a surprise.

"It was a tragic end to a great administration," Short said of Jan. 6. "The die had been cast well before that day."

Short participated with the Justice Department's federal grand jury on the events of that day, the highest profile witness known to have testified in the criminal investigation. He's seen as a vital witness in the House committee's investigation into the campaign Trump waged to convince Pence not to certify the election.

Though Short chuckled about the plethora of books that have been recently released by Trump Administration officials, he said he had not read any of them. Writing tell-all books, he maintained, is "not what staff should do."

There's one he does plan to read, however: Pence's "So Help Me God," due in November.

David Kronke can be reached at 812-231-4232 or at david.kronke@tribstar.com.