On October 3, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, spoke to a group of Republican donors at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington. Unbeknownst to Ayers, his remarks were recorded, and the audio was subsequently obtained by Politico.

Combining the arrogance of D.C. operatives with the bluster of the Trump White House, the young staffer urged the donors to punish elected Republican senators and congressmen who dared call into question parts of Donald Trump’s agenda: “Just imagine the possibilities of what can happen if our entire party unifies behind him? If—and this sounds crass—we can purge the handful of people who continue to work to defeat him.”