Pence says he was ‘disappointed’ by Meadows’s performance as Trump chief of staff

Former Vice President Pence said in a new interview that he was “disappointed” with Mark Meadows’s performance as former President Trump’s chief of staff.

“I was disappointed in Mark Meadows’s performance as chief of staff, particularly at the end,” Pence told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

“From very early on, when it was clear that he had talked the president out of White House coronavirus press briefings, in a very real sense I think his tenure as chief of staff did not serve the president well.” 

Pence told Todd that he objected to the decision to move away from the daily COVID press briefings, noting that it was important for the administration to give information to the public and media at that time. 

“But once we went through that early difficult period with COVID and the new chief of staff started his tenure, the pressure began a month or so into the pandemic to move away from the briefings. I objected to that, but obviously it was the president’s decision,” Pence added. 

Meadows, who spent less than a year as the White House chief of staff during the Trump administration, has been a central figure in a House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol. 

Pence also told Todd that John Kelly and Mick Mulvaney fared better as Trump-era White House chiefs of staff than Meadows. 

Pence, who is promoting a new book and has said he will decide in the coming weeks about a 2024 White House run, previously said in an “ABC World News Tonight” interview that he believes there are “better choices” than Trump in 2024.

Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election last Tuesday amid a slew of legal investigations from federal and state authorities and ongoing questions about his influence and future in the Republican Party.

–Updated at 11:47 a.m.