Pence’s former aides trade fire over Trump endorsement

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg (R), former national security adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence, defended his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, and his endorsement of former President Trump’s White House bid, in response to harsh criticism from former Pence chief of staff Marc Short, in an interview Tuesday.

Kellogg and Short’s exchange began after Kellogg endorsed Trump for president in 2024 and sharply criticized Pence, who he said lacks the “bold and decisive leadership” that “we have seen in President Trump.”

“While I respect [Pence’s] service to our Nation, I must express my disappointment in his recent actions regarding President Trump. It is not the decisive leadership that we have seen from President Trump. Where President Trump is bold and unafraid to challenge the status quo, Pence has often chosen the passive route, avoiding confrontation,” Kellogg said Monday in his endorsement. 

“This lack of assertiveness, combined with an overreliance on failed political consultants like Marc Short, has demonstrated a laisse-faire leadership style unworthy of the Presidency,” Kellogg continued, referring to Pence.

In a Tuesday interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” Short took aim at Kellogg, who he said recently nominated Pence for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “I don’t think is consistent with his comments of him lacking leadership skills,” Short said.

Short also criticized Kellogg’s actions on Jan. 6. Short claimed Kellogg “did not stand at his post” that day and, instead, “was down on the rally, encouraging people to march on the Capitol. “ 

Short also read from an email he received from Kellogg Jan. 6, 2021, when Kellogg said, according to Short, “I recommend you stay on the Hill and finish the Electoral College issue tonight.” When Short told him that was the plan, Kellogg reportedly responded saying, “That’s not a good plan, that’s a great plan. Close this thing out tonight.”

Kellogg fired back on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, defending his Jan. 6 actions by claiming to be carrying out his appropriate duties. He also said he nominated Pence for the Presidential Medal of Freedom because “it was my hope to bring both sides back together.”

“Saying I was ‘encouraging people to march on the Capitol’ is blatantly false and slanderous. I was standing my post. NSA was out of town, and DNSA was off that morning. It was policy to have a senior national security figure with POTUS at all times. That was me,” Kellogg wrote Tuesday night, in response to Short’s comments in the interview.

“It was my hope to bring both sides back together with the PMoF. You didn’t even try, and failed your principal,” he added.