Mike Pence launched his quixotic campaign for the presidency on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, with a pack of lies.
I say “quixotic” because Pence isn’t going to be president. He has no constituency; he’s too rightwing to appeal to Democrats, and Trump Republicans won’t touch him.
Nor is he a compelling figure like Kennedy or Reagan whose personality could power him through a crowded field to nomination and general election victory. I’m not sure why he’s running. Maybe for lack of something better to do.
Pence didn’t “save” democracy on Jan. 6, 2021; reading off the electoral votes for Joe Biden chosen by the American people was his job. Saying he “saved” the Constitution is like saying a gas station attendant “saved” your car by pumping gas into it.
And there’s no particular reason to vote for a candidate who lies through his teeth, as Pence did in his inaugural campaign address. CNN took apart his lies (here). They include:
- Claiming “families are struggling right now with record inflation.” Not even close. Inflation right now is under 5%; it was over 9% last summer, nearly 15% in 1980, and 23.7% in 1920.
- Claiming separating migrant children from their families “began under Obama.” Not true at all, CNN says; this was a policy of the Trump administration.
- Claiming he’s “always” supported abortion exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. That’s not true either. In 2010, he said abortion should “never” be legal; in 2011, he co-sponsored legislation to narrow the Hyde Amendment’s definition of rape.
- Claiming the Obama administration banned military assistance to Ukraine. That’s a lie, too; between 2014 and 2016, Obama’s administration provided Ukraine with “counter-artillery and counter-mortar radars, armored Humvees, tactical drones, night vision devices and medical supplies.”
- Claiming “modest” temperature changes over the next century won’t be as bad as “radical environmentalists” claim. The scientists are right, he’s wrong; the outlook for global warming is alarming, and increasingly so.
Mike Pence is a mediocrity, not a political giant. He embraces views that are not mainstream; about 70% of Americans want abortion to be legal, and his views on climate change put him in the denier category. He plays fast and loose with facts, saying what he thinks voters want to hear.
And he’s a fawning toady. Although no one can compete with Ted Cruz in that respect, who stood on a debate stage with a deer-in-headlights smile on his face as Trump called his father a terrorist, Pence on Saturday, June 10, 2023, “criticized the Department of Justice,” instead of Trump, “for a devastating 37-count indictment accusing his former boss of conspiring to hide top-secret documents from authorities seeking their return” (see story here). Why is he throwing rule of law under the bus for a guy who urged a mob to hang him?
No guts. He’s a spineless blob. CNN says he’s “twisted himself into a pretzel on Trump” (see story here) — because he doesn’t have the guts to criticize a criminal who tried to overthrow our system of government for fear of alienating the social misfits who comprise the bulk of the GOP’s voter base. But they’re not going to vote for him anyway. They want their cup of poison.