The first “Mike Pence for President” ad has arrived, but the vice president isn’t going to be happy with it.
It was made for him by the Lincoln Project. And it’s accurate.
Related: Sailors were told to “clap like you’re at a strip club” for Mike Pence
Pence, the former governor of Indiana, has been nakedly ambitious throughout his political career. The darling of the religious right, he calls his wife “Mother” and refuses to be alone with women anywhere alcohol is served unless his wife is present.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
After Pence bungled the response to a law that allowed businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people, his support in the state dropped dramatically. While Pence was about to lose his reelection campaign as governor, he was saved when Donald Trump selected him to be his vice presidential nominee.
Pence has clung to Trump through all of the president’s crisis and scandals. His smug loyalty to a man so diametrically opposed to his supposed Christian beliefs earned him national scorn. Every time Pence’s supposed morals could have benefited the country, he did nothing.
To further his goal, the evangelical Christian became the “cheerleader of the porn star presidency,” as out presidential candidate and fellow Hoosier, Pete Buttigieg, called him.
Trump, however, is not known for his own loyalty. And he just proved it to Pence in a rather pointed manner in 2019.
Asked if Pence would have his backing for a 2024 bid for the White House during a Fox and Friends interview, Trump refused to support his own veep. He didn’t endorse Pence as presidential material, instead, he said, “You can’t put me in that position.”
While Pence finally broke with the president and certified the Electoral College votes, finishing his constitutional mandate after insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, he walked a thin line between backing Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results and joining the president’s conspiracy theory that the election was “stolen.”
“Other Republicans abandoned the president while yet more continue to support him,” the ad intones. “But Mike Pence, using his decades of experience, knew that the best thing to do was nothing at all.”
“In fact, he’s totally giving Trump the silent treatment. He’s speaking less to Trump than he would to a female subordinate at a lunch meeting.”
Pence and Trump reportedly haven’t spoken since the president tried to cajole Pence into breaking his constitutional oath by telling him he could either be a “patriot” or a “pussy.” Hours later, the president’s supporters stormed the Capitol building, crying out they were ready to execute the vice president as a traitor to Trump.
