WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Mike Pence is releasing a book that his publisher said will include details on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and how that severed his once close relationship with former President Donald Trump.
Pence's book will be released on Nov. 15, 2022. The memoir will cover his life and faith. But it'll also cover his relationship with Trump and, his publisher said, "President Trump's severing of their relationship on Jan. 6, 2021, when Pence kept his oath to the Constitution."
Until that day, Pence was perceived as extremely loyal to Trump. Their relationship began to wither ahead of the attack, as Trump pressured Pence to reject the 2020 presidential election results.
Marc Short, Pence's former chief of staff, testified before a federal grand jury investigating the insurrection, according to a person familiar with the matter.
In video testimony played at one of the panel's hearings last month, Short recalled that Pence had communicated to Trump “many times” that he did not agree with efforts to get him to overturn the election results, including by rejecting electors or by simply declaring Trump the winner.
Short was at the Capitol on the day of the siege and was with the vice president as he fled his post presiding over the Senate and hid from rioters who had stormed the building and called for his hanging.
Matt Pottinger, a deputy national security adviser for Trump, also testified before the committee. Pottinger said at the Capitol the mob was chanting "Hang Mike Pence," as Trump tweeted his condemnation of his vice president.
Trump still criticizes his former vice president for his role in certifying the election results.
Pence has repeatedly defended his actions that day, even as his decision to stand up to his boss turned large swaths of Trump's loyal base against him. Polls show that Trump remains, by far, the top choice of GOP primary voters, with Pence far behind.
Now, more than a year later, Pence is becoming increasingly brazen in his willingness to counter Trump.
The two will held dueling events in Arizona last week and this week they once again crossed paths to deliver major speeches on the same day in Washington, D.C.
The encounters mark a more confrontational phase in the fraught relationship between the former running mates and once close confidantes who could soon find themselves competing against one another in the 2024 GOP presidential primary if they both ultimately choose to run.