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Donald Trump's weekly lunches with Mike Pence at the White House followed a familiar routine, according to a forthcoming book by the journalist Michael Wolff.

"The lunches were specifically meant to be an opportunity for Pence to tell the president exactly how hard he was working for him," Wolff wrote in an excerpt of the book "Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency" published by The Times of London. "He usually got ten minutes to do this before Trump snapped on the television and launched into his current list of grievances."

The book says Trump wondered how Pence "could be such a 'stiff' and a 'square'' and "regarded Pence as someone not tough, as someone who, he increasingly pointed out, could be 'rolled.'"

Tensions grew between the two, however, after the 2020 election as Pence dismissed the argument that he, as vice president, could reject what Trump considered to be "fraudulently chosen electors" and prevent Congress from certifying Trump's election defeat. The book notes that Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani's first hope was that Pence would immediately upset the election by certifying Trump as president.

Read more: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's former staffers detail a 'demoralizing' office environment where they were afraid to 'mess up in any way' while working for the Arizona Democrat

The excerpt describes a discussion between them on January 5 the day before the insurrection by Trump supporters at the US Capitol in which Pence refused Trump's demands to block Joe Biden's victory.

Wolff wrote that the two were alone together in the Oval Office after their lunch had been rescheduled to a meeting and that Pence listened to Trump describe the election as "stolen" but didn't disagree with him. The president talked of Pence's "heroic place in history" if he did what Trump considered was right, Wolff wrote.

"Trump pressed further, in a line he would leak straight away and that he would be repeating for months to come: 'Do you want to be a patriot or pussy?'" Wolff wrote. "Pence, not rising to the bait, repeated that, in the overwhelming opinion of those constitutional experts he had consulted, the Constitution did not give him the authority to do what the president thought he could do."

Last month, Pence reiterated his view that the vice president had "no such authority" to reject or return electoral votes certified by the states and hit back at Trump's continued attacks on him without mentioning the former president by name, Insider's Tom LoBianco reported.

"The truth is there is almost no idea more un-American than the idea that one person could choose the president," Pence told a crowd assembled at the Reagan Library in California. "The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone."

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Trump gave Pence 10 minutes to talk before turning on TV, book says - Business Insider

One of the most vivid moments of my fatherhood was sitting in the woods one hot early July day on the Gettysburg battleground between Devils Den and Little Round Top, watching my two sons climb up what became the most important strategic heights of the American Civil War and a turning point for civilization.

Had the Union lost at Gettysburg, the political will of the North to continue would have evaporated. There would have likely been a United States of America, the Confederate States of America, the Republic of Texas and, perhaps, a half-dozen other nations. There would have been nations with slavery, regional wars, and the accompanying Pandoras Box of atrocity and horror.

While raising my sons, there were the normal parental concerns sending them off to war on a foreign battlefield, but up until now, the notion that they face a second American civil war seemed far-fetched. In the America we grew up in, the regional battles young Hoosiers waged against Alabama and Texas took place on football fields, basketball courts and baseball diamonds.

Ominously, that has changed. When a significant portion of one of our two main political parties refuses to accept the results of a presidential election, that calls into doubt the fragile American experiment. A YouGov poll in October 2020 found that 56% said they expected to see an increase in violence as a result of the election. Some 40% strongly agreed that the United States could be on the verge of a second civil war. This is the single most frightening poll result Ive ever been associated with, said Rich Thau, president of Engagious, a poll sponsor.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that a third of nearly 700 Republicans seeking U.S. House and Senate seats have embraced Donald Trumps perverse and baseless notion that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen.

The Atlantics Tim Alberta writes in the article The Senator Who Decided to Tell The Truth about Michigan State Sen. Ed McBroom, a conservative, pro-life Republican. He chaired the Michigan Senate Oversight Committee, which released a bombshell report in June: There is no evidence presented at this time to prove either significant acts of fraud or that an organized, wide-scale effort to commit fraudulent activity was perpetrated in order to subvert the will of Michigan voters. The Committee strongly recommends citizens use a critical eye and ear toward those who have pushed demonstrably false theories for their own personal gain.

McBroom has been doubted by constituents, who would rather believe a Russian or Chinese website designed to discredit American democracy and sow division. Its been very discouraging, and very sad, to have people I know who have supported me, and always said they respected me and found me to be honest, who suddenly dont trust me because of what some guy told them on the internet, McBroom said.

Last week, the New York Times posted a 40-minute video investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It documents in vivid detail from hundreds of videos the origins of the mob that was incited by President Trump, how the U.S. Capitol was breached in eight places, the deaths of two Trump supporters, and the hours of hand-to-hand combat that Capitol and Washington Metro Police endured.

The violence resulted in more than 140 injuries, but my takeaway was, given all the mayhem, its a wonder there werent more casualties. Despite the beatings that police endured, they only fired one shot. The video raises questions on why police were so ill-prepared and why it took the Pentagon hours to respond to the assault that had been planned in plain view on the internet. It reveals how close the insurrection came to derailing the peaceful transfer of power that has forged the American democracy experiment and how fragile that has become.

Last week, former Vice President Mike Pence said at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Now, there are those in our party who believe that in my position as presiding officer over the joint session that I possess the authority to reject or return electoral votes certified by the states. The Constitution provides the vice president with no such authority before the joint session of Congress. And the truth is, theres almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone.

Pence added, In the years ahead, the American people must know that our Republican Party will always keep our oath to the Constitution, even when it would be politically expedient to do otherwise. If we lose faith in the Constitution, we wont just lose elections. Well lose our country.

President Ronald Reagan said, Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didnt pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

I keep thinking of my young sons scaling Little Round Top, at a time when the American experiment in democracy seemed to present an unlimited vista to excel and celebrate. Now I am deeply concerned about the lethal horrors my grandchildren may watch at the next Gettysburg.

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HOWEY COLUMN: When we refuse to accept the verdict of elections ... - Evening News and Tribune

A political firestorm was provoked in Sequim, Wash. last year, shortly after the town got a new mayor, who turned out to be a promoter of right-wing QAnon conspiracy theories.

This year, one of the mayor's main backers a Q conspiracy apologist named Donald "Donnie" Hall is working with a slate of candidates on the northern Olympic Peninsula.

Hall is a self-styled political kingmaker and Clallam County Republican. He co-founded a group in 2019 he called the Independent Advisory Association, which recruits and trains conservative-populist candidates, including Sequim Mayor William Armacost.

Hall said his main goal for the Independent Advisory Association is to give like-minded candidates the campaign basics they need to compete. But online and in interviews, he also offers rationalizations for QAnon and advocates like Armacost.

Earlier this year, Armacost backtracked, claiming hed never endorsed QAnon. But last summer on a local radio segment called Coffee with the Mayor, he called QAnon a truth movement that encourages you to think for yourself.

Armacost also encouraged people to check out QAnon conspiracy videos, which warn of a hidden war going on between patriots like Donald Trump and a Satan-worshipping cabal that supposedly runs almost everything, including an international child sex trafficking ring. Unlike groups that draw attention to trafficking, Q believers claim there's a vast conspiracy that includes celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks, and every president since Ronald Reagan, except Trump.

Armacost declined to be interviewed for this story. But Donnie Hall was willing to talk about QAnon, and the candidates hes helping and backing this year.

Hall said hes not a conspiracy theorist. But last year, he posted an essay on social media called Anatomy of a Conspiracy Theory, in which he relied on a different conspiracy theory to discredit QAnons critics, claiming the conspiracy starts with an FBI Report.

Hall also argued QAnons claims have a basis in fact.

When a group like QAnon comes along and says: Hey, theres these [international child sex trafficking] rings out there. You have to be careful. That makes sense to me, he said.

This election season, Halls helping a slate of candidates on the Olympic Peninsula run for office, including a man named Mike Pence (not to be confused with the former vice president).

The Sequim-based Mike Pence worked as a municipal employee in Oklahoma and Missouri before moving to Sequim in 2019. He was appointed to the Council last year.

KUOW uncovered an email that Pence once forwarded to Mayor Armacost. In it, the author who identifies as a QAnon supporter claims a Storm is Coming, calls for a QAnon gathering in Sequim, and thanks Armacost for saving children who have, suffered so at the hands of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

Why did Pence forward this QAnon email to a mayor who had recently promoted QAnon to the community? That's unclear. Pence did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story.

Pence has competition. Vicki Lowe is running for Pence's seat. She's a lifelong resident, who describes herself as descended both from pioneer families and the Jamestown SKlallam Tribe. Currently she heads the American Indian Health Commission of Washington State and also serves on the Sequim planning commission.

Like many others in Sequim, Lowe is worried about the conspiracy theories, and said theyre having a real impact on local politics.

One of the most persistent in the area is that Seattle is giving bus tickets to homeless people to come over here and be homeless, Lowe said.

"This is classic redistribution of misinformation as a political tactic a conspiracy around large numbers of outsiders coming in to disrupt the community, said Devin Burghart, who studies the far right for the Seattle-based Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, which he also runs.

Burghart calls QAnon a "catch all" for a variety of conspiracy theories like the one about Seattle exporting homeless people.

While Burghart said support for specific QAnon prophecies has diminished because they didn't come true, his research indicates that the underlying support for conspiracy theory politics is spreading throughout the country, including here in Washington state.

According to Lowe, the misinformation about Seattle and busing got going in Sequim a few years ago over opposition to a Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) clinic being built by the Jamestown SKlallam Tribe. According to the Jamestown SKlallam Tribe, the facility will only serve residents of Clallam and Jefferson counties, where there's a well-documented, homegrown problem with drug addiction.

Nevertheless, conspiracy theories about addiction, homeless people, and the MAT facility are familiar to many in town, including a Trump supporter named Karen Holley.

Once they start busing in the heroin addicts to Sequim, we're going to be screwed, she said.

Larry Amos rolls his eyes when asked about this theory, which hes heard many times.

People read this, and they read that, and they mix it together and add a little imagination and cook up this rumor, Amos said.

There are some programs to help people experiencing homelessness travel home, but there's no evidence to suggest many are traveling from Seattle back to Sequim. King County has a "family reunification" travel program, for example, but according to the county, in 2020 "requests for relocation were few," and there is no record of anyone receiving a bus ticket to Sequim (or anywhere else in Clallam County). And surveys indicate the vast majority of homeless people in the region are local.

One of Lowe's top campaign pledges is to work on the citys affordable housing crisis, where like many places prices have skyrocketed in recent years. This spring, home prices hit an all-time high and supply was the tightest its been for nearly two decades.

Its a complicated problem that will be difficult to solve. But Lowe said when false information persists and the focus of politics turns to conspiracy theories, it's difficult to debate, let alone address, the real issues, including affordable housing and homelessness.

In Part II of this story next week, we look at how conspiracy theory politics are playing out this year in nearby Port Angeles

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Right-wing conspiracy theory politics grip Sequim, a small Washington coastal town - KUOW News and Information

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to keynote the signature fundraiser for the Republican Party in South Carolina, home to the first Southern presidential primary and a crucial destination for potential White House hopefuls of both major parties.

Hes looking forward to coming down to South Carolina, being able to to deliver some red meat and speak his mind without having to worry about being a diplomat, state Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick told The Associated Press last week, referencing a recent conversation with Pompeo. He delivers substance.

The fundraiser known as the Silver Elephant Dinner began in 1967 with a California governor, Ronald Reagan, as its keynote speaker, and has become an annual attraction for top GOP figures. Headliners over the ensuing decades have included a slew of other Republicans who went on to vie for their partys top billing, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry among them.

Pompeo, who also served as CIA director during his four years in the Trump administration, has been making the rounds in other states with early presidential voting contests, such as Iowa and New Hampshire, fueling speculation he will seek the Republican presidential nomination.

But, as politicians often do this far out from a primary, Pompeo demurred when asked about future electoral ambitions, including a White House run, and whether a potential run by former President Donald Trump would sway any plans.

Only the Lord knows where I will be in 2023, Pompeo told AP last month during an interview about a political action committee he formed to assist down-ballot Republicans in the 2022 election cycle.

Such a political vehicle also serves to give anyone with presidential aspirations a platform by which they can develop connections in states across the country and maintain visibility.

Several other former administration officials also have formed such PACs as Republicans grapple with their partys future following Trumps term. Trump himself has complicated those conversations, implying he could seek a second term and recently returning to the large-scale rallies that have become his signature events.

Two and a half years out from the states first-in-the-South primary, other former Trump administration figures mentioned as potential GOP hopefuls have also begun courting South Carolina.

They include Nikki Haley, who cut short her second term as the states governor to serve as Trumps U.N. ambassador. During an April visit to a historically Black university in Orangeburg, Haley addressed the 2024 race when questioned by AP, saying she would not seek her partys nomination if Trump runs again.

Two weeks later, choosing South Carolina as the site of his first public speech since leaving office, former Vice President Mike Pence put down a marker for a potential return to office, telling a Columbia audience that in the coming months hell be pushing back on the liberal agenda he says is wrong for the country.

Another South Carolinian mentioned as a potential 2024 presidential candidate is Sen. Tim Scott, with his name appearing in a straw poll at this years Conservative Political Action Conference. Recently launching his 2022 Senate reelection campaign, Scott also gave the GOPs response to President Joe Bidens maiden address to Congress this year.

McKissick, South Carolinas GOP chairman, declined to estimate how much money the July 30 dinner could bring in for the party, but said a thousand or more people would attend.

In a statement to AP, Pompeo said he was looking forward to the event, as well as working to reelect great conservatives like Scott and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster next year.

Now more than ever, its important to defend American values and stand up to the radical left, he said.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

Continued here:
Pompeo to headline GOP dinner in early-voting South Carolina - The Associated Press

Welcome back to 10 Things in Politics. Sign up here to receive this newsletter. Send tips to bgriffiths@insider.com or tweet me at @BrentGriffiths.

Here's what we're talking about:

One thing to watch for: The Labor Department publishes June's jobs report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. President Joe Biden is planning to speak about it at 10:15 a.m. ET.

Former President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, former Vice President Mike Pence, and and former Ambassador Nikki Haley lead Insider's fifth ranking of possible 2024 presidential candidates. Former President Donald Trump, Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News; former Vice President Mike Pence, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

1. IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY: Former President Donald Trump's lack of a social-media megaphone and continuing legal cloud over his namesake company have begun to thaw the freeze he's cast over the 2024 Republican presidential field. My colleague Tom LoBianco has taken stock with power rankings of where the vast array of hopefuls stand.

Here are some of the highlights:

Legal troubles or not, Trump is still in command ... for now: "Political parties only shift when they lose, and the GOP is not convinced yet that Trump is bad for winning elections," said Michael Cohen, a Republican pollster. This means 2022 may loom far larger than any legal clouds.

See where the rest of the GOP field stands.

2. Trump and his allies brand New York investigation 'witch hunt': Running the same strategy suffers from one potentially fatal flaw, however: Trump is no longer president. He and his allies are still hoping they can win the PR battle even with the former president deprived of the bully pulpit and his Twitter account. For now, they also aren't worried about Trump being implicated directly.

Someone clearly didn't watch 'The Wire': New York prosecutors' indictments of the Trump Organization and CFO Allen Weisselberg cite company documents that listed certain payments to Weisselberg as "Holiday Entertainment" in official records and then in a different place listed the money as part of Weisselberg's compensation. The holiday money is one of the instances that prosecutors say show Weisselberg and the Trump Organization evaded paying taxes.

3. Supreme Court dealt another blow to voting rights: The court's justices ruled 6-3 to uphold two Arizona voting restrictions in a pair of key cases over whether the laws violated one of the surviving sections of the Voting Rights Act. A leading expert on voting rights, who has been sharply critical of Republican-led efforts across the country to expand voting restrictions, told NPR that the ruling would severely restrict future federal challenges of state laws.

Family members holding a vigil for the missing victims of the Surfside, Florida, condo collapse. Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

4. Rescue work resumed at Florida condo site: Rescue efforts stalled for 15 hours over concerns for the stability of the remaining structure of the Surfside condominium that partially collapsed, the Miami Herald reports. The search for the 145 people still missing will be more limited because of the instability of the debris.

5. Federal executions are temporarily halted: Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered the Department of Justice to pause federal executions after the Trump administration made historic use of capital punishment by carrying out 13 executions in just six months, the Associated Press reports. This doesn't end federal executions for good nor does it stop prosecutors from seeking the death penalty.

Trump delivering remarks to US troops during an unannounced visit to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan in 2019. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

6. A major milestone in the US withdrawal from Afghanistan: American forces have left Bagram Airfield, once the center of the US war effort in Afghanistan, officials said. The US military withdrawal from the country is expected to be completed soon, though some troops are expected to remain longer to protect the US Embassy.

7. CDC director says vaccinated don't need to wear masks despite variant: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, says fully vaccinated Americans are "safe" from all coronavirus variants identified so far in the US and don't need to wear masks. The World Health Organization sparked confusion when it recommended that even vaccinated people revert to social distancing and mask-wearing to stem the spread of the Delta variant. Despite the CDC's guidance, Los Angeles County is urging Californians of any vaccination status to wear masks indoors as a precaution.

8. Rep. Liz Cheney is lone Republican on Capitol-riot panel: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named Cheney as one of her appointments to the newly created select committee tasked with investigating the January 6 insurrection. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has reportedly threatened to strip any Republicans who join the panel of their other committee assignments. McCarthy questioned whether Cheney, who was ousted from GOP leadership over her criticism of Trump in connection to the riot, might be more loyal to Pelosi than "to us."

9. Hundreds are thought to be dead amid heat wave: The death toll in Oregon alone is 79, the Associated Press reports. Many were found alone in homes without air conditioning or fans as triple-digit temperatures blanketed the Pacific Northwest. Officials tried to help residents, but the scorching weather was simply too much.

10. There's a bipartisan push in Washington to #FreeBritney: Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bob Casey are pressing for more federal oversight over conservatorship after Britney Spears' emotional testimony last week describing her past 13 years under a conservatorship, Time magazine reports. More on what the senators are doing here.

Today's trivia question: Which founding father was dead certain that we would all celebrate July 2 for years to come? Email your guess and a suggested question to me at bgriffiths@insider.com.

That's all! Have a healthy and happy holiday weekend.

Excerpt from:
10 Things in Politics: Trump's woes expand 2024 field - Business Insider