Pence’s chief of staff accuses Trump of locking him out of White House

WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, on Wednesday accused President Trump of revoking his White House access as tensions between Pence and Trump continued to worsen.

The president publicly and privately lobbied Pence in recent weeks to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win ahead of Wednesday’s confirmation vote in Congress, which Pence is overseeing as the president of the Senate.

“Mike Pence, I hope you get to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country, and if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you,” Trump said at a rally outside the White House earlier Wednesday.

But Pence defied Trump, and in a lengthy letter to members of Congress on Wednesday, said he did not have the power to throw out the electoral votes that will make Biden the next president.

“It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” Pence wrote.

Short told RealClearPolitics on Wednesday that Trump was “blaming me for advice to VP.”

Trump singled out Pence in a tweet as protesters hijacked Congress on Wednesday afternoon and sent lawmakers, including Pence, into lockdown, but it was deleted by Twitter for spreading misinformation about the election.