Archive for the ‘Mike Pence’ Category

Why Mike Pence Might Not Pardon Donald Trump – Huffington Post

Co-Authored by Maclen Zilber, Democratic Strategist and Campaign Consultant based in Hollywood, CA

September 8, 1974. Its not a date that rings a bell for most of us, but its a day that came to define an entire Presidency. President Gerald Ford issued a sweeping pardon to Richard Nixon that day, absolving him of all of his crimes, and ensuring hed never face the music for his many crimes.

Mention of Watergate is in the air these days, it seems. You cant throw a stone in Washington without hitting somebody making a comparison between Donald Trumps Russia misdeeds and Watergate.

The parallels to Watergate are inescapable. Watergate was, after all, about a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, and todays Russia scandal is, at least partly, about a digital theft from the DNC headquarters.

There has been, and will be, millions of words of digital ink devoted to the likelihood of Donald Trump being impeached, and we wont rehash most of it. Instead, we ask, what happens after a potential impeachment? No U.S. President has ever been prosecuted for high crimes and misdemeanors after leaving office. Could President Trump be the first?

Two things are true in regards to a potential Trump impeachment:

Ever since President Ford pardoned Nixon, it has been a widely held assumption in American politics that any Vice President would likely pardon their President in the event of a scandal-based impeachment. Certainly it would have happened if any President since committed similar crimes.

As is the case in so many areas, Donald Trump changes everything.

Mike Pence had little or no relationship with Donald Trump prior to being nominated as Vice President from the start, they had an arranged marriage. In fact, Pence backed Senator Ted Cruz in the Indiana GOP Presidential primary contest over Trump. That said, this is hardly unprecedented numerous Presidential tickets have included uneasy bedfellows but the degree to which Pence and Trump come from different wings of the party and different walks of life can hardly be overstated. Pence is an individual whose principal motivation in public life appears to be social issues, while Trumps positions on abortion and other issues seem to be little more than a matter of convenience (indeed, he has held every position conceivable on abortion).

With the possible exception of Vice President Dick Cheney, nobody agrees to serve as Vice President unless they have at least some hopes of becoming President. In the case of Pence, that rings especially true; he has been repeatedly publicly humiliated by Trump, and the only plausible reasons that he has stood by Trump are:

Its for these reasons that there is a good chance Vice President Pence will not pardon Donald Trump.

To back up and provide some context, its worth noting that if Trump is removed from office, it likely means he will have, by that point, become even more unpopular than he is today. Trump is already more unpopular than any other President has been at this juncture of their Presidency, and there is hardly a whisper of impeachment. This suggests that Republicans wont seriously consider removing him until Trumps presence becomes politically untenable even in safe red districts.

Even if Democrats take back the House of Representatives in 2018, conviction on an impeachment proceeding requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which necessarily requires Republican votes. Thus, in any world in which Trump is impeached, we can assume that he has become so unpopular, so politically toxic, that his removal is supported by mainstream Republicans, not just Democrats.

Which brings us back to Mike Pence. If all Mike Pence wants to do is to become President of the United States, pardoning a wounded and scandal-ridden President would almost ensure his defeat in 2020. Remember, the only way Trump gets impeached is if he is so unpopular that hes toxic in red states, not just blue ones.

Alternatively, if Mike Pences principal motivation is to be a good soldier for the Republican Party, he also will likely see that pardoning a scandal-ridden President would lead to massive down-ticket losses for Republicans.

We must remember that Pence, for all his loyal posturing in the press, ultimately has no personal loyalty to Trump. The two barely knew each other a year ago. If the political winds become unfavorable, Pence will no doubt save himself.

It is too early to tell whether the revelations from the Russia scandal, or Donald Trumps personal graft and profiteering, will ever rise to a level of outrage that leads to Trumps impeachment. However, with new information coming out on Russia every day including The Guardian reporting that investigators have concrete and specific evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia we cant rule out impeachment. Nor can we rule out, if an impeachment process is initiated, that the President could resign in disgrace prior to such a process, as was the case with President Nixon.

If either scenario played out, and if Vice President Mike Pence were to be absolved of any potential Russian-related taint, thereby becoming President himself, the question is, might he follow in Fords footsteps by pardoning a President? The move ultimately cost Ford in 1976 at the ballot box when he actually ran for President himself.

If all these, of course, speculative events come to fruition, and if Pence were to follow the same Ford playbook, the Vice President might pay the same price that Ford did with the electorate should he have future Presidential aspirations. Given this dynamic, we wont be surprised if Mike Pence learns from Gerald Fords mistake and leaves Trump out to dry.

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Why Mike Pence Might Not Pardon Donald Trump - Huffington Post

Some Notre Dame students think Mike Pence ‘demeans’ their ‘humanity’ – Washington Examiner

"What we want to do is give a voice to those who have been silenced." So said one Notre Dame student leading an effort to protest Vice President Mike Pence's upcoming commencement address on campus.

The irony of protesting an alleged attempt to silence some people by silencing another is obviously lost on this young activist.

"For many people on our campus," the student said, "it makes them feel unsafe to have someone who openly is offensive but also demeaning of their humanity and of their life and of their identity."

Word salad, fresh from higher education's farm of half-baked progressive hot takes.

To break the sentence down, this student is claiming offensive speech, and the so-called demeaning of people's humanity, lives, and identities, makes her peers feel unsafe. That charge could also be viewed as demeaning to people whose safety is in legitimate danger, rather than private school students who feel as though a mainstream political opponent's worldview poses a serious danger to their "humanities" and "identities."

Another student told the school paper that the school's decision to bring the vice president of the United States to campus for commencement "goes against certain Catholic Social Teaching," charging the university with "picking and choosing" which of those teachings it stands behind.

Picking and choosing? Like choosing to ignore teachings on marriage and abortion?

Certainly, it is fair for these students to disagree with Pence's perspectives on political issues. But their inability to present well-reasoned objections to his politics, instead cobbling together an incompatible assortment of half-formed arguments, is another unfortunate reminder that the campus Left is no longer interested in reason at all.

Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.

Also from the Washington Examiner

Trump on Thursday declined to answer a direct question from a reporter as to whether he ordered the strike.

04/14/17 11:20 AM

Continued here:
Some Notre Dame students think Mike Pence 'demeans' their 'humanity' - Washington Examiner

Nearly 40% Americans lean toward Mike Pence on hanging with the opposite sex – Quartz


Quartz
Nearly 40% Americans lean toward Mike Pence on hanging with the opposite sex
Quartz
When a profile of Karen Pence revealed that US vice president Mike Pence never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won't attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either the liberal world erupted in mockery and ...

Excerpt from:
Nearly 40% Americans lean toward Mike Pence on hanging with the opposite sex - Quartz

Mike Pence and the attack of the Puritans – Delmarva Daily Times

We remember the Puritans as the people with the funny hats and blunderbusses who supposedly invented shooting Turkeys for Thanksgiving. They are also famous for their obsession with avoiding sin and insistence on deciding who merited Gods approval.

This stereotype is not completely fair, but its got a lot of truth in it. Suffice it to say if you were a time traveler in search of a great time, you would want to steer clear of 1600s Massachusetts. And if you were a Native American back then, you might have been confused by the way such moral people were so adept at stealing land and hanging each other for heresy.

Nobody wants to be called a Puritan anymore, but the Puritans are still with us. And theyre not just fanatical English Protestants. They hail from all religions and ideologies. They are Republicans and Democrats, Muslims and Christians, the uneducated and academics; all ready to take to social media or the pulpit or the classroom and denounce heretics. These people are passionate about their causes, almost obsessed with them at times to the point of rigidity, ready at the drop of a hat to eviscerate those who disagree with them and pronounce them not just mistaken, but bad people whose opinions must be silenced.

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The recent tempest in a teapot over Vice President Mike Pences marital habits he accidentally revealed that he tries very hard to be faithful to his wife was an odd example of this. The people tearing into him on social media for being a Puritan revealed more than a little of this Puritan rigidity in themselves an impatience and disgust with anyone who violated their standards of how to live.

The Puritans werent all wrong, of course. Its with some bemusement that I listen to people who have no patience for the religious convictions of fundamentalists take their own no-compromise stances on other moral issues, like racism or womens rights.

Theyre right to take a stand on those issues. But if they were just a tiny bit more open minded, they might see what they have in common with the Puritans. Modern people think sexual assault is destructive and repugnant. The Puritans agreed, and also said adultery was destructive and repugnant.

Feminism, racial issues, abortion, poverty these are moral debates. And they divide people with strong moral passions. Even those who attack religion, it turns out, have their own moral orthodoxies, and need to guard against that little Puritan on their shoulder whispering in their ear.

Where some of the Puritans went wrong, like many have since, was to lose their balance on that awfully delicate high wire of living life with both passion and compassion, with conviction and tolerance; being firm in their beliefs and yet living amicably with those who arent; standing firm on core values but being flexible on others.

Many of us struggle with that high-wire act. And that should give us compassion, for each other, and for those darn Puritans.

Andrew Sharp is a producer at The Daily Times and delmarvanow.com. Email him at asharp@delmarvanow.com. Find him on Twitter @buckeye_201 and on Facebook @andrewsharp201.

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Mike Pence and the attack of the Puritans - Delmarva Daily Times

What disgraced Gov. Robert Bentley could have learned from Mike Pence – Washington Examiner

After a recent Washington Post profile of second lady Karen Pence noted that her husband never eats meals alone with other women or attends events where alcohol is served without her, ravenous liberals used that detail to smear Vice President Mike Pence as a sexist who reduces women to sexual temptresses and stalls their professional advancement. This week, however, Pence's policy received some unintentional backup from an unlikely source former Gov. Robert Bentley, R-Ala.

In a dramatic conclusion to the made-for-television sex scandal involving the governor and his senior political advisor, Bentley resigned on Monday and reported directly to the Montgomery County Jail where he is currently serving a 30-day sentence. Tracing Bentley's career-ending relationship with adviser Rebekah Mason to its origins, reports indicate that increasing occasions where the two spent time alone was an early signal to observers they were engaged in extramarital relations, or moving in that direction at least.

A report in Al.com claims the governor's wife, Dianne Bentley, began "having concerns about the amount of time her husband" spent with Mason in 2013, noting Mason "frequently [texted] her boss and [was] seen in close conversations" with him. Staffers also reported that Bentley and Mason were "often behind closed doors."

According to an ABC interview with Jason Zengerle, a GQ writer who published an investigative report on the affair last summer, sources close to the governor said they would "walk into a room where the governor and Rebekah Mason were together and both the governor and Mason would be startled as if they were doing something they didn't want other people to see."

Nobody knows exactly when or how the affair began, but, as Al.com reported, Dianne Bentley started noticing changes in her husband in 2013, around the time Mason was selected to run communications for Bentley's re-election campaign and the two started "spending more time together." Again, it is not clear if meals the two shared, or mutual attendance at alcohol-fueled events, ultimately lead to the affair the only occasions Pence's policy actually prevents.

But, of course, if Bentley had committed to refraining from increased one-on-one time with staffers of the opposite sex, he likely would not be behind bars today.

That goes for Mason, as well.

To be clear, people of the opposite sex need to be able to spend time alone together professionally, and it is important for men to respect women enough to make that possible without sexualizing the circumstances. Any restrictions on those interactions should probably apply to working people of both sexes in a marriage as well. (We do not know if the Pence's rule also applies to Karen.)

This is not to say the Pence policy is right for every marriage, but in politics, where rising powers such as Bentley and Pence work odd hours, often with female staffers, the temptations are unique.

Also from the Washington Examiner

Trump on Thursday declined to answer a direct question from a reporter as to whether he ordered the strike.

04/14/17 11:20 AM

It is not unreasonable, then, to erect unique boundaries either.

Bentley's affair is a case study in how the dynamics of political life can combine to form a perfect storm of variables that swirls around even the happiest of marriages, claiming victims unprepared for the impact.

Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.

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What disgraced Gov. Robert Bentley could have learned from Mike Pence - Washington Examiner