There were lots of places where Pence and his team were no heroes. They could have warned any number of people about what Trump was up to long before January 6, and Pence’s apparently noble stance was undoubtedly informed by a realization that if Pence did as Trump asked and it went wrong—even Eastman acknowledged the scheme was illegal—Pence would be the one holding the bag.
But the committee left all that unsaid. Instead, it went out of its way to make a very clear distinction between Trump, who was out for himself and damn the country, and Pence, who risked his own safety to follow the law. Indeed, that theme was so clear it appeared to have been carefully scripted. Today’s testimony highlighted the principles of Jacob and Short and their boss, Mike Pence. It even took a deliberate detour to let both Jacob and Short talk about how their Christian faith helped them to stand against Trump and do what was right, an aside that seemed designed to appeal to the evangelicals supporting Trump. And it highlighted how Pence continued to do the work of governing even while he was in the secure location, which looked much like a loading dock according to new photos shown today.
The committee seems to be presenting a clear choice to Republicans: stand with Trump, a man without honor who is quite possibly looking at criminal indictments and who is trying to destroy our democracy, or stand with Pence, who embraces the same economic and social ideology that Republicans claim to, without wanting to destroy our democracy.
FWIW…It seems like it’s an attempt to wean the evangelicals off of Trumpism by exposing the rampant hypocrisy. Whether that will be effective is anyone’s guess.
Divide and conquer? I mean, I guess it could work. Finally?
I hate having to speak anything positive about Pence, but the easy path for him would have been to refuse to certify, and mumble some vague something about all the confusion and say “let’s try again later.” The right path was doing what he did. No “full credit” for that. But he does deserve an acknowledgement that “if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, and blaming it on you” was the right thing to do, and put him in no small amount of danger. He’s still a Fascist Fucky McFuckface, and I hope that him doing the right thing here drives him waaay the fuck out of politics forever.
I don’t know if it’s a good tactic, but it seems deliberate. In general, there really is no reason to assume that the GOP represents “real” Christians when the reality is that many Christians DO vote for the Democrats. The GOP declaring themselves to be the “party of god” has not been good for the US, since the strain of Christianity they represent is pretty authoritarian.
Agreed, but @Melizmatic makes an important point about how often white people in America can do the bare minimum and be considered heroes.
It could also be pure self-interest. Pence is probably smart enough to recognize that most outcomes where he tries to put Trump back in office lead to prison or even death (once he’s served his purpose, why would Trump keep him around?). He’s definitely not noble; he’s a selfish bastard, and his decisions on Jan. 6 reflect that and no more.
it’s interesting framing. if they said it was the t**** show, then people might rightly ask how it differs from the impeachment. and it would be easier to claim “people just hate trump”
instead, we have conservatives - just a few granted - who are starting to stand up to say the republican party itself is off the rails.
