National security adviser Robert O’Brien is hailing Vice President Mike Pence for his handling of the Electoral College certification process after rioters stormed the US Capitol and President Trump lambasted his No. 2 for refusing to contest the results.
In a tweet posted in the hours after the shocking series of events, O’Brien praised his White House colleague, whom he said he had just spoken to.
“I just spoke with Vice President Pence. He is a genuinely fine and decent man,” O’Brien, a Trump ally, wrote on Twitter.
“He exhibited courage today as he did at the Capitol on 9/11 as a Congressman. I am proud to serve with him,” the tweet continued.
Pence represented Indiana in the House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013, before leaving to become governor of the state.
In his capacity as vice president, Pence was presiding over proceedings to certify the Electoral College results, a process that was expected to see some chaos of its own, with House and Senate Republicans objecting to the process.
Members of Congress were evacuated in gas masks Wednesday afternoon after hundreds of the president’s supporters overpowered Capitol Police and breached the building.
The chaos included an armed standoff outside the House of Representatives’ chamber and multiple deaths amid the chaos.
The Electoral College went 306-232 for President-elect Joe Biden, but Trump has alleged that widespread fraud tipped the results in swing states.
Courts have rejected those claims, and Trump has refused to concede, though in the aftermath of the riots, he pledged a “peaceful transition of power.”
For his part, Pence faced considerable pushback from Trump for declining to challenge certain swing-state electors to turn the election in their favor, with the commander-in-chief writing on Twitter at midday Wednesday that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our County and our Constitution.”
That tweet, along with the president’s entire Twitter account, have been temporarily suspended for his conduct in the wake of the riots.
The criticism hasn’t deterred the vice president, who tweeted in the hours after the attack to condemn those who perpetrated it.
“Peaceful protest is the right of every American but this attack on our Capitol will not be tolerated and those involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he wrote in a series of tweets.
