Former Vice President Dan Quayle was no Jack Kennedy and he once misspelled “potato.” He’s been out of national politics for 20 years, working as an investment banker.
But Quayle just might have helped save our democracy, according to the soon-to-be-released book “Peril” by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
Pence was under great pressure from Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and was considering going along with Trump’s request. The book says Quayle talked his fellow Hoosier down from doing so.
CNN, which obtained an advance copy of the book, cited a conversation between Pence and Quayle:
Over and over, Pence asked if there was anything he could do.
“Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away,' Quayle told him.
Pence pressed again.
"'You don't know the position I'm in,' he said, according to the authors.
"'I do know the position you're in,' Quayle responded. 'I also know what the law is. You listen to the parliamentarian. That's all you do. You have no power.'"
According to the book, during his conversations with Quayle, Pence also echoed Trump’s false claims that the election results in Arizona were faulty, The Washington Post reported. Quayle, who now lives in Arizona, said there was nothing wrong with the Arizona results.
Just imagine the chaos that might have ensued had Quayle given Pence different advice and suggested that he do Trump’s bidding. Could Trump have succeeded in overturning the will of the people if Pence had gone along with his wishes.
As vice-president, Quayle presided over the non-controversial session of Congress on Jan. 6, 1993 to count the electoral votes that gave the victory to Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
Quayle and Pence knew each other from Indiana politics. Pence served in the House of Representatives before being elected governor of Indiana. Earlier, Quayle served in the House before being elected to the U.S. Senate.