We can all agree that Mike Pence, the simpering MAGA sycophant, has taken an excruciatingly long time to remove his lips from the Trumpian tush and pledge his fealty to the U.S. Constitution. But now he has dramatically done so, and for that he warrants some applause. In fact, to quote what Joe Biden once said about Obamacare, Pence’s declaration of independence is “a big f—–g deal.”
Yesterday, in case you haven’t heard, Pence rebutted the fascist-in-exile’s constant yammering about how the lame duck veep, on that fateful Jan. 6, could’ve magically blocked Biden’s decisive presidential victory. Addressing members of the conservative Federalist Society, Pence said: “I heard this week that President Trump said I had a right to overturn the election. President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.” And “frankly, there is no idea more un-American” than what Trump was agitating for.
Whoa! Trump is “wrong” and “un-American”? Yup, that’s what the man said.
Never before has Pence been so direct. Never before has he essentially warned that conservatives must choose between Trump and the Constitution: “The truth is, there’s more at stake than our party or political fortunes. Men and women, if we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections – we’ll lose our country.”
So what prodded Pence to talk common sense? Maybe he just wanted to take revenge on the guy who hung him out to dry while the insurrectionist goons sought to hang him. But no. He was not motivated yesterday by spite or emotion. He made a cold political calculation – and for that, we should take heart.
Pence’s key aides have been singing to the Jan. 6 committee, and it’s inconceivable that Pence doesn’t know what they’re singing. The evidence about Trump’s direct role in the failed multi-faceted coup is mounting by the day, and televised committee hearings are scheduled for this spring. All told, the ex-veep has clearly made a determination that Trump is on the down ramp to perdition.
Robert Kelner, an anti-Trump Republican lawyer, tells The Washington Post: “It’s an extremely important moment, and I think Mike Pence must believe that, too. He’s a careful and savvy politician, and I think he chose this time for a reason…Either Pence is going to be excoriated and excommunicated, or there will be a surprising level of acceptance for what he said. I tend to think it will be more the latter.”
Granted, as longtime Republican strategist Stuart Stevens points out, Pence played dumb for a ridiculously long time: “Pence was surrounded by a conspiracy to end democracy in America. He didn’t call the FBI. He didn’t alert the public. He waited to see if it would succeed. When it was clear it would fail, at the last minute he threw in with the winning side.”
So democracy is “the winning side”? I’ll take it! Is Pence signaling to conservatives – and, especially, to his base supporters in the evangelical Christian right – that they need to join the winning side lest they go down in history as fascist-abetting losers? I’d take that, too. Is he even signaling that there might still be hope for the Republican party, that perhaps there’s a market in 2024 for an anti-coup presidential candidate?
OK, let’s not get carried away. It would be nice if Pence stayed on a roll and condemned yesterday’s Republican National Committee resolution that characterized the cop-killing Jan. 6 violence as “legitimate political discourse.” It would be nice if Pence reminded the supposedly tough-on-crime party that it’s wrong and un-American to endorse terrorism.
But hey, one miracle at a time.