Capitol riots a result of "bad advice" from Trump's advisors: White House chief

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The advisors behind Trump's eccentric decisions could be the culprit: Former US President Donald Trump claimed that he had received a bad idea from "snake oil salesmen," who told him that his vice president at the time, Mike Pence, had the authority to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, according to Pence's former chief of staff, Marc Short on Sunday.

"Unfortunately, the president had many bad advisers who were basically snake oil salesman giving him really random and novel ideas as to what the vice president could do," Short said on "Meet the Press," an NBC show.

These comments came out a couple of days after Pence expressed sharp criticism of Trump to the Federalist Society, putting his president in the wrong about suggesting his VP had the right to overturn election results. 

During the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, some rioters were yelling "Hang Mike Pence!" and another Trump supporter, now convicted of crime going under the name QAnon Shaman, left Pence a note saying "It's only a matter of time, justice is coming."

After Trump lost his legal case to block the legal committee from seeing Mike's records in the January 6 investigation panel, last week, the US National Archives announced that it will be exposing them. 

Short did not disclose details of his testimony on Sunday, but he did call the possibility of Pence testifying before the committee an "unprecedented step."

"I think it is very different to subpoena a former vice president to talk about private conversations he had with the president," Short said. "It's never happened before."

The investigative committee is looking into whether Trump's close accomplices had a hand in planning the January 6 Capitol riots, as well as Trump's role in the violent event. 

Last week, US media reported that Trump was actively searching whether the US government had the authority to seize voting machines in the country.