Former Vice President Mike Pence says he was "disappointed" in former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for both his role on January 6 and for the administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I was disappointed in Mark Meadows’s performance as chief of staff, particularly at the end,” Pence told "Meet the Press" Moderator Chuck Todd in an interview on Thursday, “but from very early on, when it was clear that [Meadows] had talked the president out of White House coronavirus press briefings ... I think his tenure as chief of staff did not serve the president well."
Pence said Meadows’s move away from the daily coronavirus briefings may have played into misinformation surrounding the pandemic at the time.
“I’ve always believed that in a public health emergency, more is more when it comes to information,” Pence said.
Pence said the chief of staff's responsibility is to ensure the president is "in a position to make decisions that only a president can make."
"The president's got to rely on his senior team," Pence said, "What, frankly, all the best White House Chiefs of Staff have done throughout history, is make sure that the only people to get into the Oval Office are people who have credibility to be there. And they make sure that the president understands what they're coming to talk about. So he's in a position to be able to make decisions that only a president can make."
Pence said other former chiefs of staff for Trump, like John Kelly and Mick Mulvaney did their best to uphold their responsibilities in those matters.
Watch the full interview Sunday on “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.”
