- A conservative group allied to Vice President
Mike Pence spent $25,000 on ads targeted at PresidentDonald Trump to show that Pence was loyal to him, Bloomberg reported. - The
Club for Growth — whose president is friends with Pence — paid for the ads to be aired to the Palm Beach, Florida, market last week while Trump was on vacation in Mar-a-Lago, Bloomberg said. - Pence has the awkward job of certifying Joe Biden as the president-elect on Wednesday, though Trump has appeared to believe the vice president has the power to change the result of the election.
- In reality, Pence's role at Wednesday's joint session of Congress is largely ceremonial, and he has no power to overturn his and Trump's election loss.
In apparent preparation for his role confirming President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the
Trump has expressed the belief that Pence can overturn the election results when he presides over a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, when the Electoral College results will be read out and Biden certified as the president-elect.
In reality, Pence's role is largely ceremonial and he has no power to influence the winner.
This puts Pence at risk of angering Trump and potentially losing his support if Pence ends up running for president in 2024.
During a recent trip to Georgia to campaign for the Republican candidates in the two Senate runoff races in the state, Pence spoke to one of his friends about a recent ad by the Lincoln Project, a Republican anti-Trump group, which portrayed Pence as trying to distance himself from the president's attempts to overturn the election results.
Axios reported last week that Trump had seen the ad and was angry at Pence.
The Pence friend in question, former Indiana congressman David McIntosh, told Bloomberg that Pence said he wanted the president to know that "he remained a good friend."
As a result, McIntosh's conservative group, Club for Growth, spent $25,000 on ads to run on Fox News in the Palm Beach, Florida market, last week, when the president was in Mar-a-Lago, Bloomberg reported.
The Club for Growth clip countered the Lincoln Project ad, and painted Pence as a Trump loyalist, Bloomberg reported.
It's not clear if Trump has seen the ad. He cut his holiday trip to Mar-a-Lago short this year, leaving a day early and skipping a New Year's Eve party where attendees reportedly paid about $1,000 a ticket.
Insider has contacted the White House and the Club for Growth for comment.
Read more: Trump's sad implosion is a good sign for Biden's agenda
On Monday, Trump told a rally of supporters in Georgia: "I hope Mike Pence comes through for us, I have to tell you," referring to Wednesday's Electoral College certification ceremony.
"Of course, if he doesn't come through, I won't like him quite as much," Trump said, adding that Pence was "going to have a lot to say about it."
Pence appears to be drawing up a plan to get in the president's good books after Wednesday's ceremony by planning a series of events to highlight Trump's accomplishments in office, according to Bloomberg and The New York Times.
- Read more:
- Trump says he hopes Mike Pence 'comes through' to certify him as the 2020 election winner instead of Biden - but the vice president has no power to do that
- More than 170 leaders from top US firms, including Goldman Sachs and Microsoft, urge Congress to certify Biden's electoral college win
- On the day of the crucial Senate runoffs in Georgia, the GOP is at war with itself
- Georgia Republicans rebut Trump lawsuit that seeks to disenfranchise millions of voters