The kindest description of Mike Pence is that he looks like the airline pilot who rotely nods at you from his cabin door as you disembark. But the truest description is that he is Trump’s Stepford wife – nodding at dear leader in robotic adoration, and tossing word salads in defense of his alpha dog’s imbecilities.
Witness his gigs yesterday on Fox News Sunday and Meet the Press. When Pence was asked about the health-hazard protestors who are marching for the “freedom” to defy stay-at-home orders and thus risk infecting the rest of us – indeed, when Pence was queried about Trump’s toxic tweets urging protestors to “liberate” their states – he clicked “play” and out came the prerecorded pap.
Yes, I know, we should never expect anything else from him. But given our dire public emergency, the refusal to call out those idiots and demand they stay home so that we can get this virus under some semblance of control, is worse than despicable. It is a violation of the fundamental duty to protect the health and welfare of the citizenry – namely, the 81 percent of Americans who support sheltering in place.
On the one hand, Trump is saying that governors should decide when to reopen their states; on the other hand, on Twitter, he’s goading protestors to “liberate” Minnesota, Michigan, and Virginia – lock-down states with Democratic governors who are not prepared to reopen.
Which is why Chuck Todd, on Meet the Press, asked Pence: “Can you explain what the president is trying to ‘liberate’ Minnesota from? I don’t quite understand that use of language.”
Pence’s filibustering bob and weave:
“Well, no one wants to reopen America more than President Donald Trump. And I think the American people have known that from weeks ago when the president declared that important balance, we have to make sure that the cure isn’t worse than the disease. Because the reality is that for all of the sacrifice the American people have made, sacrifices that literally have saved lives, the truth is that there are real costs including the health and well-being of the American people to continue to go through the shutdown that we’re in today. And so the president laid out new guidelines for every state in the country – “
Pence then swerved onto the topic of testing (it’s going great, he lied), until Todd finally lost patience: “I’ve given you a lot of leeway. Why is the president trying to undermine the guidance you’ve been laying out…he laid out that guidance on Thursday and undermined it (with the liberation tweets) on Friday.”
There’s no way, of course, that Pence was going to denounce Trump for inciting lawlessness, or urge the agitators to stay home. As always, his response was to politely repeat himself and lull viewers with rhetorical Melatonin:
“Chuck, I just – I don’t accept your premise and I don’t think most Americans do either. The president’s made it clear, he wants to reopen America. And we laid out guidelines for every state in the country to safely and responsibly reopen their economy at the time and manner of their choosing. We laid out the criteria for when our best scientists believe that would be appropriate. If it was 14 days of declining of cases and they had proper hospital capacity. And we laid out the means that they could move into phase one. When you hear the president, when you see people across the country talking about reopening, every American and this president want to do that in a safe and responsible way…And at the president’s direction we’re going to continue to work to do that every day.”
Pence is certainly politer than Trump, who yesterday harangued a CNN reporter, “You don’t have the brains you were born with!” On the other hand, Pence’s fatuous response prompts us to wonder: If Trump truly wants to reopen the country “in a safe and responsible way,” how can that ever happen when he’s giving aid and comfort to the irresponsible fools who are risking everyone’s safety?
He was tested a tad harder on Fox News Sunday. Chris Wallace asked: “I want to start with those growing protests across the country against the stay-at-home orders. Some of the protestors ignoring social distancing. What do you think, specifically, of their protests and how they’re carrying them out?”
Pence: “Well, first let me say that from the moment President Trump asked me to lead the coronavirus task force two months ago…”
Whenever a politician starts with “Well, first let me say,” you know he’s fleeing the question. And away Pence went, for two long minutes, about Trump’s “leadership” and how we’re starting to put the virus in the rear view mirror and how Trump is doing great things for hospital workers and how “no American who needs a ventilator has been denied a ventilator” and how testing is being expanded, and how “no one wants to reopen America more than President Donald Trump…as soon as we can responsibly do it around the country – “
Until Wallace finally had had enough: “But, Mr. Vice President, in many oif these cases, these protestors who are not socially distancing are saying they don’t want to wait. They’re protesting your own old guidelines to stop the spread.” Wallace shared the liberation tweets and asked Pence whether Trump was fomenting domestic rebellion. “So, what does the president mean when he says ‘liberate’ these states?”
Pence, clicking Rewind and Play again:
“The American people know, nobody wants to reopen this country more than President Donald Trump. On Thursday, he laid out guidelines on how to responsibly do that… America works when America is working…We want to get America working again as soon as we can…”
Two minutes into that soliloquy, Wallace gave up. Pence had done his best to polish Trump’s incendiary trash, but within a matter of hours – naturally – Trump was back on TV (for another propaganda show, dutifully broadcast live) with fresh rhetorical aid and comfort for the protestors.
“I’ve seen the people,” said Trump. (Of course he has; all he does is watch TV). “I’ve seen the interviews of people. These are great people. Look they want to get – they call cabin fever, you’ve heard the term – they’ve got cabin fever. They wanna get back. They want their life back. Their life was taken away from them…I think these people are – I’ve never seen so many American flags.”
These “great people” have “cabin fever” – because it’s clearly in the Constitution that free Americans with American flags have the inalienable right to visit the hair salon whenever they want. You don’t have to be a dog to hear Trump’s dog whistle.
There will always be a lot for Mike Pence to clean up and tamp down, but a sycophant will always answer the call.