'Striking': Analyst explains why Pence’s decision to testify against Trump is 'big deal historically'

Former Vice President Mike Pence's loyalty to ex-President Donald Trump has been questioned and staunchly criticized by faithful MAGA supporters since he decided to accept President Joe Biden's win over Trump ahead of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

A bombshell November 28 ABC News report by Katherine Faulders, Mike Levine, and Alexander Mallin detailed the ex-vice president's conversations with US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's investigators earlier this year about Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Referencing the report, during Tuesday's episode of MSNBC's Deadline: White House, guest host Ali Velshi spoke with legal analyst Neal Katyal, saying, "As we often say, commas save lives. There's this whole discussion about comma placement. Let me read this from the article, 'Sources said that investigators' questioning became so granular at times that they pressed Pence over the placement of a comma in his book. When recounting a phone call with Trump on Christmas day 2020, Pence wrote in his book that he told Trump, 'You know, I don't think I have the authority to change the outcome of the election on January 6th.' But Pence allegedly told Smith's investigators the comma should never have been placed there. According to sources, Pence told Smith's investigators he meant to write in his book he admonished Trump, 'You know I don't think I have the authority to change the outcome,' suggesting that Trump was well aware of the limitations of Pence's authority days before January 6th — a line Smith includes in his indictment."

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Velshi continued, "So [...] Mike Pence's internal struggle aside, he's saying to Jack Smith's investigation, 'I told Trump that he knows that this can't happen. I'm one more person who told Donald Trump he has to leave office.'"

Katyal replied, "That's exactly right. And as the greatest living artist, Lin Miranda, said in 'Hamilton,' the placement of a comma changes everything. You take that excerpt you just showed along with all the other things in this report, and to me [...] I think substantively all of this has come out in various other testimony. But to me, the big news here is that, this story to me says, former Vice President Pence is going to testify in a criminal trial against the person who he served when he was vice president ¸— the former president of the United States. That's a big deal for the litigation. It's a big deal historically. And it is striking to me that we are learning about all these details now, three years later, basically. I mean, a guy tries to launch a coup as the sitting president, and another guy, Pence, is witness to all this, and that witness dribbles out various things over the last three years? I mean, it's not as bad as Trump, but it's of the same ilk. And you know when it comes to the 2020 election, you can stand on the right side of history or stand by the side of Donald Trump, and Mike Pence has been acting like these aren't mutually exclusive. The story to me today says absolutely, they are. Pick one.

Watch the video below or at this link.

'Placement of a comma changes everything': Analyst explains why Pence's words are 'a big deal'youtu.be

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