A former Donald Trump aide said he believes Mike Pence, not Michael Cohen, will be the former ally who ultimately does the ex-president the most harm.
One-time White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said the former president’s lack of loyalty to his acolytes was one of the “blind spots of Mr. Trump’s personality,” while speaking on the The Rest Is Politics US podcast.
“Michael Cohen is the example of Trump flotsam. He is the wreckage thrown overboard by Donald Trump, and so he’s aggrieved and he’s bitter, but I think he’s honest,” Scaramucci said about Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, who has been testifying against him this week in his hush money trial.
Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to a $130,000 payment made to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies having sex with Daniels.
Timothy A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
However, Scaramucci said Trump’s former vice president is actually likely to be a bigger threat.
“I think Mike Pence is going to be the guy that does the most damage,” said Scaramucci, who had a brief stint as Trump’s White House director of communications in 2017, and has since become a vocal critic.
“He was the sitting vice president on the ballot with Donald Trump, and he has denounced him and he says under no circumstances will he endorse him,” Scaramucci said.
He added that Pence had galvanized about 40 people who worked for Trump to warn against the dangers of another presidency. He didn’t elaborate on who these people were.
“I submit to everybody rhetorically, if the 40 of us worked at a pharmaceutical company, we told you this drug is going to kill you, or we worked at an airline manufacturer, and the plane’s going to come out of the sky, or an automobile company, we said this car is going to crash and kill your family, would you then get in the car?” Scaramucci said.
Trump’s relationship with his former vice president soured after Pence refused to overturn President Joe Biden‘s 2020 election win, despite Trump’s pressure.
Pence has repeatedly said that it would have been unconstitutional of him to do so, and he has blamed Trump for endangering him and his family with his criticisms.
Rioters who breached the Capitol on January 6, 2021, chanted to hang Pence and some brought mock gallows, Scaramucci pointed out.
He noted that Pence “was left out to dry in a different way” than Cohen was.
“This mistake of Trump, by being asymmetrically loyal, expecting loyalty one way, dishing and transacting with everybody negatively if they’re not in the moment going 13 for 10 for Donald Trump, this wreckage is going to come back to haunt them come November,” Scaramucci said.
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