Ex-vice president Mike Pence is finally criticizing Trump.
You know, Trump, the guy who incited a mob to chant “hang Mike Pence!”
On Saturday, March 11, 2023, Pence declaimed, ““President Trump was wrong, I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.” (See story here.)
When Trump demanded he refuse to certify the 2020 election, Pence called a former GOP vice president, Dan Quayle, for advice. Quayle told him what everyone else in the country knows, that he couldn’t do that, his role was ceremonial, so Pence went ahead and certified the will of the American people.
What kind of jellyfish needs a big brother’s permission to carry out the ministerial tasks of his job? It took Pence 2 years and 64 days to decide to complain about Trump’s attempt on his life. That’s some jellyfish. And he wants to be president? Excuse me, but he doesn’t have what it takes.
But it doesn’t end there. Note that Pence called Trump’s insurrection “wrong,” not “criminal,” and suggested that “history,” not courts, hold him accountable. What a freaking coward. But it’s even worse than that.
Pence didn’t suddenly find religion. He’s been thumping the Bible for a long time (but make no mistake, he does it to drum up votes). If he were 1/100th of the Christian he claims to be, he’d know that lying about the election and trying to overthrow it was morally wrong — and he’d say so. But Pence hasn’t cooperated with investigators, doesn’t want to testify before a grand jury, is unwilling to bear witness of what was done to him and our country.
This is as clean as he’s ever come about what Trump did, and the only reason he’s coming this clean is because he’s running for president and “his advisers … believed it would help Pence win over … Washington insiders and journalists” skeptical about his candidacy. In other words, it’s a political tactic, just as his two-years-plus of silence was, and his lack of cooperation with prosecutors is. He doesn’t want to alienate Republican voters.
Do you want a president who behaves morally only when there’s political gain from it? Then vote for Mike Pence. Give Putin and Xi a good laugh at us.
Related story: Pence made an offensive wisecrack about Buttigieg that plays to Republican bigotry; read that story here.
Photo above: Clamdigger encounters President Jellyfish