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By some accounts, Mike Pence has wanted to be president since his college-fraternity days. Now he finally seems ready to runbut he cant find a constituency to support him. How did the former VP get here?

But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

Deal With the Devil

My colleague McKay Coppins, who profiled Mike Pence for The Atlantic in 2018 and has closely followed Pences political career ever since, recently sat in on some focus groups consisting of Republican voters who supported Trump in both 2016 and 2020. My goal was to see if I could find at least one Pence supporter, McKay wrote yesterday. Instead, he heard some of the most withering commentary youve ever encountered about a politician.

I called McKay to talk about Pences Trump trap, and how one big miscalculation damaged his political prospects.

Isabel Fattal: Mike Pence has a problem: Some voters think hes too aligned with Donald Trump; others think hes not aligned enough. How did he end up in this pickle?

McKay Coppins: Well, its a problem Pence created for himself. When he joined the ticket in 2016, he decided that his job would be to loyally defend Trump in every context. Pences role was to be an obsequious Trump flatterer, and he did it very well. And then he broke with Trump on January 6 by refusing to obstruct the certification of the electoral votes.

On one side, I kept hearing, in these focus groups of Republicans who are still strong Trump supporters, that Pence was disloyal. And on the other side, the less Trump-inclined Republicans felt like Pence was too stained by his time in the Trump administration. What was interesting, though, is that everybody across the MAGA spectrum saw Pence as weak. And I think that thats what you get when you refuse to take a stand. In trying to walk this line, I think hes alienated everybody and has come off looking kind of spineless in a way that is not appealing to any voters.

Isabel: You argue that Pence also miscalculated the role of decency in conservative politics.

McKay: Pence made the calculation at the very beginning that he would vouch for Trump with conservative Christian voters. He would assure them that Trump was a good man, and that they didnt need to worry about the various mistresses and affairs and exploits in his personal life. Pence was a key figure in creating a permission structure for evangelical voters to support Donald Trump, all of his personal foibles notwithstanding.

In doing so, Pence unwittingly wrote himself out of conservative politics. He convinced what should have been his baseconservative religious votersthat personal character and morality dont really matter in a presidential candidate. I heard that over and over in these focus groups. Voters would praise Mike Pence as an apparently decent, honest, wholesome guy who seems like a good Christian. And then, in the next breath, they would say, But I dont really want to see him as president. And in many cases, they cited those qualities as evidence that he doesnt have what it takes to be president.

Pence accidentally conditioned the conservative Christian base to see as their ideal champion a brash, loud, charismatic, and morally dubious figure. Now thats what they expect in a president. And the fact that Mike Pence doesnt embody that persona now works against him.

Isabel: Right. He did too good of a job selling Trump.

McKay: Exactly. Ive been writing about Pence for a long time now. When I profiled him back in 2018, it was clear to me that he had made this deal with the devil, this bargain that he thought would position him to eventually become president. And instead, all of the compromises he made to his principles ended up being his undoing. I think theres a tragic irony in that.

Isabel: Tom Nichols recently wrote about Pences speech at the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, where Pence publicly stated that Trump endangered his life on January 6. Why do you think he is speaking out about this now?

McKay: I imagine that his campaign-in-waiting is holding similar focus groups as the ones that I sat in on. And I imagine that his consultants have recognized the same problem that Ive identified, which is that right now he has no constituency at all. So its possible that he will decide that the most hard-core Trump supporters are out of reach, and that therefore his best bet is to sharpen his criticism of Trump, sharpen his criticism of what happened on January 6, and reach for the portion of the party thats not still under Trumps spell. I dont know if itll work, and there are probably other candidates better positioned at this point to win that segment of the party. But it is possible that hell decide thats his best shot.

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Evening Read

How Ivermectin Became a Belief System

By Kaitlyn Tiffany

Since fall 2021, Daniel Lemoi has been a central figure in the online community dedicated to experimental use of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin. You guys all know Im not a doctor, he often reminded them. Im a guy that grew up on a farm. I ran equipment all my life. I live on a dirt road and I drive an old trucka 30-year-old truck. Im just one of you. Lemois folksy Rhode Island accent, his avowed regular-guy-ness, and his refusal to take any money in exchange for his advice made him into an alt-wellness influencer and a personal hero for those who followed him. He joked about his tell-it-like-it-is style and liberal use of curse words: If you dont like my mouth, go pray to God, because hes the one that chose me for this mission.

Last March, during an episode of his biweekly podcast, Dirt Road Discussions, he thanked his audience for their commitment to his ivermectin lifestyle: I love that you guys are all here trusting my voice. His group currently has more than 130,000 members and lives on Telegram, a messaging app that has become popular as an alternative social-media network. When Lemoi died earlier this month, at age 50, his followers found out via the chat. As first reported by Vice, Lemoi had given no indication that his health may have been failing. In fact, one of his last posts in the group was from the morning of the day he died: HAPPY FRIDAY ALL YOU POISONOUS HORSE PASTE EATING SURVIVORS !!!

Read the full article.

More From The Atlantic

Culture Break

Read. Saving Time, a new book by Jenny Odell that challenges Americans relationship with time.

Watch. Arrival (available to stream on multiple platforms), the 2016 alien-contact film to which the Atlantic staff writer Jerusalem Demsas attributes her enduring devotion to the actor Amy Adams.

Play our daily crossword.

P.S.

If you havent read McKays 2018 profile of Pence yet, I recommend sitting with it; he does a beautiful job untangling the political, moral, and religious motivations at play in Pences path to power.

There is, of course, nothing inherently scary or disqualifying about an elected leader who seeks wisdom in scripture and solace in prayer, McKay writes. What critics should worry about is not that Pence believes in God, but that he seems so certain God believes in him. What happens when manifest destiny replaces humility, and the line between faith and hubris blurs?

Isabel

Kelli Mara Korducki contributed to this newsletter.

Read more:
Mike Pence is in a Trump trap - The Atlantic

Mike Pence wants to have it both ways.

He wants to be the conservative hero of Jan. 6: the steadfast Republican patriot who resisted the MAGA mob and defended the institutions of American democracy. Make no mistake about it, Pence said at the Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington, D.C., this month. What happened that day was a disgrace, and it mocks decency to portray it in any other way. President Donald Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day.

But Mike Pence also wants to be president. And he cant fully repudiate the previous Republican president if he hopes to win the Republican presidential nomination, especially when that president is still on the stage, with a commanding role in Republican politics.

The result is that Mike Pence has to talk out of both sides of his mouth. With one breath, he takes a righteous stand against the worst dysfunction of the Trump years. We have to resist the politics of personality, the lure of populism unmoored by timeless conservative values, Pence said last week while speaking to an audience of Republican donors in Keene, N.H.

With his next breath, however, Pence rejects any effort to hold Trump accountable, especially when it asks him to do something more than give the occasional sound bite. Asked to testify about the events surrounding Jan. 6, Pence says no. Faced with a grand jury subpoena forcing him to testify, Pence says hell challenge it, under the highly dubious theory that as president of the Senate he was a legislative officer who, like other lawmakers, was covered by the speech or debate clause of the Constitution and thus free of any obligation to testify.

When asked this past weekend about potential criminal charges against the former president possibly for falsifying records of a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, a porn star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford Pence deflected, telling ABC News, At the time when theres a crime wave in New York City, the fact that the Manhattan D.A. thinks that indicting President Trump is his top priority I think just tells you everything you need to know about the radical left.

Who will hold Trump accountable, according to Pence? No one living. History will hold Donald Trump accountable, he said, as if history had agency separate from the people who make or write it.

In fairness to Pence, hes not the only Republican hedging his bets. None of Trumps rivals or anyone else who hopes to have a future in Republican politics view either the investigation into his behavior or the potential charges against him as legitimate.

Here we go again an outrageous abuse of power by a radical D.A. who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump, tweeted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Im directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions, he added, without irony.

The Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor. And so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety, said the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, the pot calling the kettle black.

Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and a current presidential aspirant, has been silent on the matter, and the long-shot candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a venture capitalist, condemned the potential Trump indictment as a disastrously politicized prosecution.

Whether or not you think it is a good idea to indict Trump in this particular case, it is striking to see how Republicans commit to the former president when asked to speak to his alleged crimes.

But it speaks to a larger point, beyond the double-talk of Pence or the deflection and avoidance of other Republican politicians. Trump may not be as strong as he was as president. He may have been wounded by the long investigations into Jan. 6 and diminished by the failure of many of his handpicked MAGA candidates in the midterm elections. And yet Trump is still the dominant figure in Republican politics. He still occupies the commanding heights of the Republican Party. And theres no one not DeSantis or Haley or any other potential contender ready to challenge Trump for control of the party.

There was hope, after the 2020 presidential election, that after his defeat Trump would somehow fade away. He didnt. There was hope, after his failed putsch, that his time in the spotlight was over. It wasnt. And there was hope, after the 2022 elections, that MAGA had run its course and Trump along with it. Wrong again.

The only way to remove Trump from the board to neutralize his influence in the Republican Party and to keep him out of power is for Republicans to move against him with as much force as they can muster. It was true in 2015, when Republican elites could have coordinated themselves against him when he was still a curiosity and not the leading candidate for the nomination; it was true in 2019 and 2021 when he was impeached by the House, and its true now.

Republicans cant avoid conflict if they want to be free of Trump. They have no choice but to condemn him, reject his influence and refuse to defend his criminality.

We can see, of course, in this instance and so many others that they wont. Among Republicans with an ambition to lead, theres no one who will take that step. Which tells us all we need to know about the state of the Republican Party. It was Trumps when he was president, it is Trumps while hes still a private citizen, and it will be Trumps next year, when the presidential race starts in earnest.

Put differently, if theres no voter Trump could lose if he stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shot somebody, as Trump famously said, there are probably no leading Republican politicians who would leave his camp, either. Hell, they might even say the victim deserved it.

See original here:
Opinion | Trump Could Stand in the Middle of Fifth Avenue and Not Lose Mike Pence - The New York Times

As he mulls a 2024 presidential bid, former Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday called for common sense and compassionate solutions to reform entitlement programs and the nations debt burden, suggesting changes to Social Security and Medicare programs hurtling toward insolvency, particularly for younger generations, without naming specific recommendations.

What we need now is leadership because, if we act in this moment with the support of this generation, we can introduce common sense reforms that will never touch anyone who is in retirement, or anyone who will retire in the next 25 years, Pence told an audience of college students at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Itll just take courage to do it, and thats where your generation will come in.

What to do with Social Security and Medicare, as the programs close in on projected insolvency dates, has emerged as a dividing line for Republicans seeking to lead their party in the 2024 presidential contest.

Forecasters say Social Security wont be able to pay out its promised benefits in about a dozen years, and Medicare wont be able to do so in just five years. Economists say both programs will drive the national debt higher in the decades to come, forcing teeth-gritting choices for the next generation of lawmakers.

Pence yet to announce a 2024 presidential bid but saying Tuesday he was continuing to pray and reflect on one has previously suggested tweaks for the programs, telling CNBC in February that cuts to Medicare and Social Security should be on the table for the long term.

President Biden wont even discuss common sense reforms of Social Security and Medicare, and too many leaders in my political party take the same position, Pence said during remarks at Washington & Lees quadrennial mock presidential nominating convention known as Mock Con. It predicts the presidential nominee of the party out of power in the White House.

If that frustrates you, good it should, because itll be your generation thats robbed of your dreams and opportunities, he said.

Pences ideas are broadly in line with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, already in the 2024 GOP race, who last week opened the door to potential cuts for younger generations. During a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Haley said that, while she wouldnt touch the benefits of older people who retired with certain guarantees of a financial future, the rules have changed for anyone new coming in this system.

Other Republicans likely vying for the partys nomination disagree. At the Conservative Political Action Conference this month, former President Donald Trump officially mounting a third run took a veiled jab at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling out those who have proposed raising the age for Social Security or privatizing Medicare positions DeSantis has expressed support for in the past but has since abandoned.

Were not going to mess with Social Security as Republicans, DeSantis, yet to announce a 2024 run, recently said.

Many leading Republicans have recently sought to signal their unwillingness to touch entitlement programs, though the GOP has a long history of threatening to slash the benefits. Democrats have pointed to a plan by Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, introduced last year but later amended, that called for all federal spending legislation to sunset in five years, subject to votes in Congress that could preserve programs.

Met with boos from congressional Republicans when he said during his State of the Union address that some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset, President Joe Biden last week took aim at MAGA Republicans he said are intent on dialing back Medicare coverage for millions of Americans, promising to defend and strengthen the programs.

After Bidens speech, Scott amended the plan to exempt Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits and other essential services.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

Go here to see the original:
Pence seeks 'common sense' Social Security, Medicare reform - The Associated Press

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at Washington and Lee University for the Mock Convention. (Credit: Hayden Robertson, WSET)

Mike Pence, former United States Vice President, spoke at the annual Mock Convention held at Washington and Lee University Tuesday afternoon.

The Mock Convention, also called "MockCon" is a 115-year-old tradition that university students have planned for whichever political party does not control the White House.

After the former vice president gave his speech, Fox News Host and Chief Political Correspondent Brett Baier held a question-and-answer event with him.

While Pence has not said if he will run yet, Baier said his toughest competition would be former President Donald Trump, who consistently blames Pence for what happened on January 6.

The political commentator impersonated Trump asking Pence about what would happen on the campaign trail.

RELATED: Former VP Mike Pence visits Washington & Lee for Mock Convention kickoff

"The former President, if you run, is going to say, you know Mike is a great guy," Baier said. "Totally a great guy, but he is responsible for January 6."

Pence laughed and was impressed with his impersonation calling it "one of the best impersonations he has ever heard," but also reiterated that what happened that day was awful.

The former Vice President said that he never wants to see something like that ever again.

"140 police officers were hurt on that tragic day," Pence said. "I'll always believe because of the courage of those officers and the federal officials that joined, we turned a day of tragedy into a triumph of freedom."

After Baier questioned Pence on the legal challenges Trump is facing, including the election fraud case in Georgia, Pence says Republican voters will ultimately decide on what they believe, but he also pushed back against the new voting laws enacted during the pandemic.

RELATED: 'Very historic:' Students react to former VP Pence speaking at Washington & Lee University

"It is not to say there weren't any irregularities in the election that undermined public confidence," Pence said. "And the truth is, in the name of COVID, there are half a dozen states that changed the rules for elections. Ultimately, the courts upheld those changes, and there was never evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election. But that undermined public confidence continues to play a role in our lives today. Once states certify their elections and send electoral votes to our nation's capital, my judgment is our duty is clear. The Constitution of the United States says Congress meets in joint sessions to open and count the electoral votes sent in by the states. No more, no less."

Pence ended the question-and-answer by taking jabs at President Joe Biden and his handling of foreign affairs issues like the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"They've been slow getting aid to Ukraine," Pence said. "They announced in January that we were going to send them 33 tanks, and then two weeks later said it would take them a year and a half to get there. We ought to be giving them tanks, giving them planes, and missiles. President Biden said we're there as long as it takes; my response to that is that it shouldn't take that long."

The former vice president also took a jab at President Biden's handling of China.

"China is the greatest strategic and economic challenge facing the United States in the 21st Century," Pence said. "I think by the free world supporting Ukraine to repel the Russian invasion will send a defining message to China and its ambitious invasion in the Pacific will not be tolerated."

Mike Pence ended his time by speaking to students and viewers.

While leaving the University Chapel, Pence thanked every member of the media for being there to cover his speech.

See the original post here:
Former VP Mike Pence addresses January 6 Insurrection and Foreign Affairs Issues - WSET

Jack Colwell| South Bend Tribune

Mike Pence will win.

I usually avoid predictions. Unless its a sure thing, like predicting that an unopposed candidate will win. Even that can be risky. Ive often told the story of the legendary Landslide Linetty from back in the day in South Bend.

Landslide was running unopposed. And lost.

Landslide didnt get a single vote. He was taken ill the night before the election. He was hospitalized and unable to vote for himself. Family members? Neighbors? Landslide didnt get a single vote. (Happy ending: Landslide was appointed to fill the vacancy.)

Once I went out on a limb to predict in a Mishawaka mayoral race that Bob would win. Both nominees were named Bob.

Even with my caution in predicting, I say confidently that Mike Pence will win.

Column:They once needed each other. Now Trump, Pence are miles apart

Im not talking about Pence winning the presidential election in 2024. I dont think he has any chance. Nor do I see him ever winning the Republican nomination. The large and unshakeable base for Donald Trump among Republican voters never will forgive Pence for not throwing out results of the 2020 election.

But Pence will win an honored place in the nations history.

Now, however, he is criticized not only by Trump and the MAGA base but also by a what-about? chorus of Democrats, even though they are outraged by Trumps scheme to stay in the White House.

When Pence ignored the threats of Trump and of the Hang Mike Pence! insurrectionists to carry out his constitutional duties of vice president, certificating the presidential vote results from the states, there were Democrats complaining, What about how he supported Trump for four years?

When in his book, Pence detailed his disagreement with Trump and told of refusal to let the Secret Service drive him away from the embattled Capitol before certification of results was completed, some critical Democrats asked, What about his lack of courage in refusing to call for Trumps impeachment?

President Trump was wrong, Pence said at the recent Gridiron Dinner. I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.

The critical chorus noted that those strong words came at a private dinner and asked, How about his refusal to testify under oath in investigations of Trumps coup attempt?

Column:Did Mike Pence save the republic?

With Pences problems with so many from the most pro-Trump Republicans to the most anti-Trump Democrats and seemingly also with most everybody in between he was described by one columnist as the Rodney Dangerfield of vice presidents: He gets no respect.

Well, Im not suggesting that Pence should be president. Nor am I suggesting that he shouldnt be criticized by those who disagree with his political views.

But its unfair when some critics portray Pence as a coward for not abandoning the traditional role of a loyal vice president much earlier. Its also unfair to say Pence did nothing more than what he was supposed to do with certification. Ho-hum. Just routine?

No matter what else he did or didnt do, he resisted pressure and threats and defended the Constitution in one of the most critical times in American history.

We all face the judgment of history, Pence said recently. And I believe in the fullness of time that history will hold Donald Trump accountable for the events of Jan. 6.

Yes. Pence, not Trump, will win the race for an honored place in history.

In evaluating what Pence did, history will focus on his defense of the Constitution and refusal to participate in a coup to overturn the will of the voters, not so much on the political chatter of today.

Landslide Linetty, though unopposed, didnt win election. It wasnt as certain as it seemed. But Pence is certain to win his race, never for president, but in history.

Jack Colwell is a columnist for The Tribune. Write to him in care of The Tribune or by email atjcolwell@comcast.net.

Read the original here:
Mike Pence will win an honored place in the nation's history - South Bend Tribune