If Mango Mohammad won’t go to the mountain, then the mountain must come to the Mango — or, in this case, the CPAC convention, which this year has been moved to Florida so that Donald Trump can be its closing speaker. Mike Pence was also supposed to be a headliner at this event, but he turned down a speakership. Could that be because:
- Pence is distancing himself from Trump politically?
- Pence finally realized how nuts Trump was, when he was running for his life through the tunnels under the Capitol?
- Pence is scared to go to CPAC, because the last time he was around a crowd of pro-Trumpers, they were trying to kill him?
- All of the above.
Mike Pence finds himself on terra incognita. If there is another sitting president who suggested that his vice president was a traitor and a coward and was mad at him because he wouldn’t break the law for the president — let alone sicced a mob on him — it’s not recorded anywhere. Plus it’s been amply noted that Mother Pence never liked Trump to begin with, and it is inconceivable that she likes him any better now after she, her husband, and her daughter had to be rushed away to save their lives.
Trump is indeed a lunatic. But then the question becomes, “What future does Mike Pence have in politics if he distances himself from Trump?” Nobody has that answer but Pence has obviously taken the first step to finding out by not appearing at CPAC this year.
It could backfire on him. Trump may decide to scapegoat Pence, just for the proverbial s*its and giggles of doing so, because that’s the way Trump rolls. It’s anticipated that Trump is going to talk about his stolen election, his second impeachment trial and his vision for the GOP going forward. Trump might just bury Pence at CPAC, at least among Trumpites, which means that Pence has no choice but to default to the Romney/Cheney/Sasse end of the GOP spectrum. That would involve a lot of clean up and revisionist history on Pence’s part, but that may be his only hope.
We shall soon see how this pans out. Pence may have actually done himself a favor by showing up at CPAC to keep Trump in check. Trump is likely not going to take it well that his former lap dog is not in attendance with the loving glances from the sidelines.
And if Pence needs to know how Trump feels about disloyalty, real or imagined, then he should give Nikki Haley a buzz. She can bring him up to speed, tout suite.
How many at CPAC will catch the Democrat Flu? Maybe Pence just doesn’t want to take a chance with catching COVID19? Or maybe he figures he will get a lot more favorable press by not attending CPAC. Some times less is more.
If Pence wants to “rehabilitate” his standing with the GOP (at whatever level–the reasonable end or the nutjob end), he really needs to get out in front and remind *his* base that the ONLY reason he was brought onto the 2016 ticket was to SELL Trump to the conservative Christian base–aka “Pence’s base.” Trump was not winning the conservative Christian vote in the 2016 GOP primaries because they were concerned about Trump’s less-than-Christian image; it was only after he was becoming the most likely candidate was he able to start coalescing that support. Even then, though, Trump remained on VERY shaky ground until Pence was brought onto the ticket. While the conservative Christians would’ve still voted for Satan if he were the GOP nominee–because “R” almost always trumps the cross for the conservative Christian voter–Pence was what sealed the deal. Of course, there’s the possibility some “true believers” might have stayed home to turn a few states (similar to 1992 when Bush I upset enough of the Falwell/Robertson brigade to put a few states into genuine play, along with the Perot campaign, to let Bill Clinton win).
Or maybe he just wants to lay low because the things Lin Wood said about him are true and there’s nowhere to run anyway if they are.
All of the above is the correct answer on your list.
Pence’s future was sealed the MINUTE he told Trump that he would fulfill his Constitutional duty and the terms of the Electoral Vote Count Act. From that moment on he was Trump’s enemy and worse, in Trump’s mind a traitor and back stabber which is kinda rich for a dude who’s spent a lifetime stabbing people in the back and throwing them under buses! But Pence was done right then and there and the only question was the manner in which Trump would bury him.
Sure, Pence had delusions of grandeur that doing his job on Jan. 6 would be his ticket to position himself for 2024 but delusion is the operative word. After four years he should have known that Trump would savage him, and that even if Trump did in fact wind up in all kinds of legal hot water (or even jail) before 2024 he (Pence) would have been so damaged by Trump with the base that he wouldn’t make it past Iowa and New Hampshire. What he didn’t expect, and I doubt anyone else with a rational brain did either that for all the signs of major trouble that might take place on Jan. 6 that Trump would deliberately and explicitly send his mob DIRECTLY after Pence. And even knowing Pence’s wife and family were with him in the Capitol Trump egged his gang of seditious insurrectionists chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” on despite the very real danger.
Maybe in the aftermath as impeachment happened and the Senate trial loomed Pence (and “Mother”) grasped at straws hoping that GOP Senators would, having (most of them anyway) been placed in harm’s way themselves do a collective “screw Trump – let’s bury him once and for all” and he would be in a position to pick up the pieces but again I remind you the mob, and indeed all the rank and file MAGAts out there were blaming Pence BEFORE Jan. 6 because news was out he wasn’t going to screw with the proceedings!
No, Pence’s career ambitions of any kind in the GOP died the moment he stood up to Trump and said “No. I’m going to follow the Constitution and the law.”
He probably feels like I did a year ago about appearing. Even if I’d been in good enough health and had the money for the trip I wouldn’t have gone back home to stand with my teammates able to be there for our induction into the Hall of Fame. Some might have cheered my introduction, but more would have booed, or at least enough to be clearly heard. That’s what Pence would face at CPAC. More people booing than cheering so why show up? For all his Presidential delusions of grandeur even he has to now know it’s never going to happen. Nor will he have any meaningful role in the GOP. As for that PAC he established in early summer 2017 I suspect that in addition to legal fees a significant chunk will be spent on personal security for himself and “Mother” too for years to come.
Pence’s career was doomed the moment he joined the Trump ticket.
There are two groups of people in this world, those Trump has screwed over and those he hasn’t screwed over, yet. Pence wasn’t bright enough to realize this, his problem.
A “Democrat” is a person.
“Democratic” is the correct adjective in this case, and in any where the adjective is called for!
Democrats need to recognize the difference and not use “Democrat” as an adjective! This pejorative recasting of the adjective was introduced by none other than Rush Limbaugh during the Clinton administration. Now that Ol’ Rush has sunk into the Rainbow Swamp for good, let’s cease and desist from this practice. It plays into Republican hands and makes us look stupid.
Yeah I watched his chief of staff went on some news thing saying how pence wasn’t rattled and had complete confidence he was safe that day. What a load of crap. Your boss puts a hit on you and then you see he thought you were toast and it was like he should’ve listened. That chief idiot was lying through his teeth. Pence is a big boy why wouldn’t he speak for himself outside of the fact that he’s scared to show his face.
Wow, you mean Pence doesn’t want to share the stage with the guy who called for his execution?
Some people are soooooooooo sensitive!