Pence: Post-2020 election meeting with Trump, lawyers ‘a new low’

Former Vice President Mike Pence reportedly writes in a forthcoming book that a meeting between former President Trump, campaign lawyers and outside attorneys after the 2020 election was “a new low.”

Pence describes a “contentious back-and-forth” between Trump campaign lawyers and outside attorneys in November 2020 while discussing legal issues associated with challenging the election, according to an excerpt of his book obtained by Axios.

“Even in an office well acquainted with rough-and-tumble debates, it was a new low …. [and] went downhill from there,” Pence writes.

While the campaign lawyers reportedly gave a negative report concerning election challenges, Pence notes that attorneys including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani contested their claims.

“Your lawyers are not telling you the truth, Mr. President,” Giuliani said to Trump over speaker phone during the meeting, Pence writes, according to Axios.

“In the end, that day the president made the fateful decision to put Giuliani and Sidney Powell in charge of the legal strategy,” Pence writes. “The seeds were being sown for a tragic day in January,” referring to Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Pence’s autobiography is expected to cover his time as vice president, including a focus on his willingness to push back on Trump, as well as other points in his life.

“Loyalty is a Vice President’s first duty; but there is a greater one—to God and the Constitution,” reads the description of his book, entitled “So Help Me God.”

Pence writes in the book that his relationship with Trump “broke down” when the former president “pressured” Pence to overturn the 2020 election, according to the description.

“The vice president refused to leave the Capitol, and once the riot was quelled, he reconvened Congress to complete the work of a peaceful transfer of power,” the publisher adds, referring to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.