Pence aide got text from Scalise staffer calling Mo Brooks and others ‘crazies’
Virginia Aabram
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An aide to House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) called the lawmakers who pushed to block the certification of the 2020 election “crazies” while communicating with a member of former Vice President Mike Pence‘s staff, a new Jan. 6 committee transcript shows.
Pence’s Director of Legislative Affairs Chris Hodgson said in testimony released Thursday that Scalise aide Ben Napier used the term when referring to a meeting of conservative lawmakers led by former Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) with former President Donald Trump and then-chief of staff Mark Meadows. The transcript is part of a trickle of evidence the committee has been publishing since last week.
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An interviewer asked: “Mr. Napier responds to you, to your question: ‘It was a call organized by June Jordan’ — which I assume is an auto correct issue about Jim Jordan? — ‘with POTUS, Meadows, and crazies.’ What did you understand him to mean by using the word ‘crazies’?”
“Likely would have been referring to other members working with Congressman Brooks on objecting to the certification of some of the States,” Hodgson answered, but he added that he couldn’t be sure about the reason for the meeting because he didn’t participate in it.
The meeting occurred on Jan. 3, 2021, three days before the Capitol riot. Investigators speculated that the meeting had to do with the plot to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the candidate who won 2020’s presidential election.
“You know, again, as somebody who wasn’t participating in these conversations, I don’t know that I had an understanding of the connectivity of those two things, and whether Members or others were making that connection,” Hodgson said.
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Pence and Trump butted heads over the strategy to deny that Biden won the election, as it revolved around the vice president refusing to certify the state election. Hodgson said in his testimony that he wasn’t aware of the growing rift between Trump and Pence before Jan. 6.
The committee voted to release the final report after 18 months of investigation last week. Hodgson’s interview took place in March 2022 in compliance with a subpoena. The committee also released interviews with Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son, and his fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle.