Writes John Leo Keenan:
I liked this article, good article.
“If anyone, it was Pence who severed the alliance. To position himself for a presidential run in 2024, he felt he had to. Unwilling to attack Trump’s policies, Pence chose to focus on the president’s comportment on January 6. As the New York Times reported in May 2022, Pence “used high-profile speeches to criticize the former president’s push to overturn the 2020 election results.”
The vice president who on January 6 criticized “significant allegations of voting irregularities and numerous instances of officials setting aside state election law” had moved on. Apparently, Pence no longer shared “the concerns of millions of Americans about the integrity of [the 2020] election.”
Yes, but it was true also in January. Pence immediately sensed that his great presidential ambition was in danger. You may recall that when Trump first spoke to the nation about what happened, he asked Pence if he had something to add, hoping for support from him, but Pence showed his own dilemma in his speech then. He didn’t fully support the President. He tried to distance himself and looked for some middle ground (it was ugly to watch, actually). Trump showed a lot of good will towards him. Trump didn’t forget the “good things” (not a quote) he had experienced from Pence. He criticized him as much as he thought he should – his weakness and fear – but he didn’t attack him like Pence has by now attacked him. He did not call him “unfit”; Pence is totally unfit for that job (who isn’t?), as his 2024 presidential campaign spelled out.
Trump ruined Pence’s political ambition. It was beautiful that he did, wasn’t it? One problem less. On his own, he floundered. It was funny but sad to watch his last candidate speech: I think he said something like “…this is not my time.” He should not have run against Trump in the primaries! His ambition went off the ramps, and he thought that Trump could be forced to quit because of the legal problems, and he would be the man who would act as if he were very sad for what happened to Trump and get to himself all the “success” of their four-year tenure…didn’t work out.
“These, however, were not the words that shaped history. Said Pence for the ages, “It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”
Pence did not come to this conclusion casually. He must have suspected, however, that had he sent the results back to the states for further adjudication, he might have launched a civil war. What he got instead was a largely peaceful protest that the Democrats shamelessly alchemized into an insurrection.”
I think the one good thing that Pence did is what he said was his “considered judgment” in the quote. I think it’s very clear in the Constitution that the Electoral College is a last resort. It is made to solve the worst emergency they envisioned – a bad one like Pence or Kamala or Biden getting into the White House!
It does not give the vice president that authority. Pence should have supported Trump strongly in every other way, though. Had Pence envisioned that Trump could survive his problems like he has, he would have done everything “perfectly” for his own ambition. Against all precedents, Trump kept advancing despite the most aggressive opposition and is one close step from the White House again. Envy of envies! Frustration of frustrations, if only it could have been known!
