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Gusts of wind tumbling over pink table cloths and vines of plastic flowers didnt stop Elena Hussan from opening up her business new home for tea parties in Bixby Knolls, Sunday morning.

Hussan, owner of Dream Come True Tea & Party Room, has been waiting 17 years to debut a permanent venue, originally slated to open this past summer, but was deterred by the coronavirus pandemic.

Its exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time, Hussan said about her venues first day in business. More than anything, she said she was grateful that she didnt lose her business, giving thanks to a dozen individuals, including her mother and boyfriend, who helped her dream come true.

Hussan invited the public to view the space, adorned with tall, pink walls and a ceiling mural as well as vintage China tea sets and hand-painted flowers around the bathroom mirror.

The venue specializes in theme parties with style and charm, from hosting fairy and princess parties for children to tea time for adults.

After hearing word of the grand opening, Lucy He, 26, came all the way from the San Fernando Valley with a Long Beach friend to see the room for herself.

It always reminds me of all the Victorian movies, she said with excitement. He, wearing a white, ruffled mask and pink ribbons on her hair, said she became interested in this aesthetic in college.

Her friend, 35-year-old Lauren Nishikawa, has been fond of the style since she was a child. Its very whimsical here, she said about the venue. I love it.

After taking pictures and gazing upon the different textures of the venue, Nishikawa and He were then seated for their reservation at the tents behind the business in the parking lota tea party experience Hussan hopes customers will still enjoy.

We made the outdoor tent as cute as possible, Hussan said.

Dream Come True Tea & Party Room is located at 3924 Atlantic Ave. Long Beach, CA 90807.

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'Cute' and 'whimsical' party room opens with teas and pinks in Bixby Knolls the Hi-lo - Long Beach Post

About 70% of Republicans apparently believe the 2020 presidential election to have been neither free nor fair.

Thats a big chunk of voters rejecting, on entirely bogus grounds, the legitimacy of the new president.

And its not the first time either.

From 2011, Donald Trump engendered support for his own tilt at the White House by questioning the legality of the Obama presidency. He built his political career upon the embrace of birtherism, a racist conspiracy that emerged during the election of 2008.

Back then, rightwing blogs and talk radio shows claimed Obama was not a natural-born citizen of the US, and thus ineligible for office under Article Two of the constitution.

A Harris Poll in 2010 found an astonishing 25% of respondents questioned Obamas right to serve, as the birthers tried to persuade electoral college voters, the supreme court and members of the college to block his certification.

More than any other figure, Trump brought that rejection of Obamas legitimacy into the mainstream.

If he wasnt born in this country, which is a real possibility ... he told NBCs Today Show in 2011, then he has pulled one of the great cons in the history of politics.

For the Tea Party movement and the Republican fringe, birtherism underpinned a rightwing conviction that Obamas presidency represented a kind of coup.

Mind you, after the 2016 election, a significant proportion of Democrats thought the same about Trumps victory.

As David Greenberg notes, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter and John Lewis were among those who publicly labelled Trump illegitimate, elected only as the result of Russian meddling. Some Democrats blamed Vladimir Putin for the WikiLeaks release of the Podesta emails or suggested Russian social bots fixed the outcome; others falsely claimed that voting booths had been rigged or that Trump was in fact a Manchurian candidate employed in Putins service.

For such people, Trump wasnt merely an odious, rightwing demagogue. He was also an impostor, whose presence in the Oval Office signified systemic institutional failure.

The refusal by Trumps supporters to accept the 2020 result as genuine didnt then come entirely from nowhere. Indeed, its been a long time since partisans of a defeated presidential candidate havent denounced the process that allowed their opponent to win.

Perhaps we shouldnt be surprised.

For years, surveys have revealed a massive and ongoing decline in trust in basic institutions, including those associated with democracy.

In early 2020, for instance, the communications firm Edelman polled 34,000 people in 28 countries for its Trust Barometer report. It found a tremendous decrease in the publics respect for institutions, with almost everywhere government and media perceived as both incompetent and unethical.

Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed believed the media to be contaminated with untrustworthy information and 66% did not expect government leaders to successfully address our countrys challenges.

Even in Australia, one of the wealthiest and most secure nations in the world, more than half of people polled saw the system as failing them, and a large majority no longer possessed confidence in the media.

We might think this cynicism would favour progressives, given the lefts longstanding critique of institutional power.

But its not as simple as that.

Obama won office because George W Bush had plunged America into permanent, unpopular wars. Trump triumphed in 2016 because he faced a weak opponent; he lost in 2020 when his response to Covid-19 revealed his utter ineptitude.

In other words, you dont need to cry fraud to explain recent presidential elections. You can understand the outcomes easily enough in terms of decisions by voters.

But only if you acknowledge voters ability to make such decisions.

Conspiracy theories proceed on an entirely different basis. They present ordinary people as gulls, the perpetual dupes of power; they suggest events unfold, always and everywhere, according to the will of hidden string pullers.

Rather than asking why their candidate didnt appeal to electors, the conspiracist looks for external manipulation implicitly accepting that only the elite can make history.

In different circumstances, a widespread cynicism about the existing institutions might propel a movement to deepen and widen participation in political affairs. Right now, however, it seems to be linked to a prevailing pessimism about democratic agency, one that can all too easily provide openings for authoritarian demagogues.

Joe Biden takes office as the embodiment of American business-as-usual. Despite polling far more votes than Trump, he remains the ultimate insider, associated with many of the most consistently hated policies in recent years (from the Iraq war, which he championed, to mass incarceration, which he helped initiate).

Not surprisingly, if you survey rightwing social media, you can see the new argument cohering at a frightening speed, with more and more accounts claiming that Biden was illegitimately foisted on honest Americans by a nefarious elite. Far-right agitators, many of whom had long since given up on Trump, have embraced the #stopthesteal campaign with enthusiasm, with the upcoming Million Maga march potentially bringing together motley white nationalist and fascist groups in what looks very much like an attempted reprise of the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally.

Just as Trumps rise inspired imitators elsewhere, we should expect the rights narrative to spread internationally. Already, baseless allegations of electoral fraud have been echoed by Australian politicians and its still early days yet.

Trump might be gone but, until we can rekindle faith in ordinary peoples ability to reshape the world, Trumpism will remain very much with us.

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Trumpism will persist until we rekindle faith in peoples ability to reshape the world - The Guardian

Ive been watching as Americans all across the country celebrate Joe Biden becoming the president-elect. There is a sense of joy and hope that has not been seen in our country for four years. Im excited but know there is a lot of work and due-diligence that we as Americans need to participate in.

As I contemplated what the landscape of the next four years would look like I couldnt help but wonder what the future holds for the Republican Party. A party that had its roots in ideals of lowering taxes, a free market capitalist society, gun rights and deregulation.

Those ideals may still be at the heart of the Republican Party, but President Donald J. Trump has brought in a new veneer of blatant sexism, racism and xenophobia wrapped in a veil of Christain and conservative ideology. From what Ive gathered over the last four years is that not all Republicans identify with Trumps form of Republicanism, but these few outliers are hard to find.

My fellow opinion writer, Jack Lewis, wrote about a group called the Never Trumpers who operate an organization called the Lincoln Project. On their website they state that they have a singular mission: To defeat Donald Trump and Trumpism.

The term Never Trumpers refers to the hard-right conservatives who oppose Donald Trump. A group who sees the support of Trump as leading to the debasement of their movement and eventually the destruction of the country.

The hope is that Trump supporters will awaken from their cult-like stasis of devotion to Trump, to create a new, reality-based conservative movement. A kind of post-Trump era of conservatism.

My hope is that the Lincoln Project can continue to grow and move the party back into the realm of reality. What will help this process is for prominent Republicans to stop pandering to the tin hat, conspiracy believing Trump supporters.

Their fear of losing power is so great that they will use and manipulate their base no matter the means necessary. The hypocrisy of it all is amazing. The party that shouts about following in Jesus footsteps more often than not, lies to its followers using fear-mongering that outsiders will come and destroy their country.

A Washington Post opinion columnist on politics both foregin and domestic, Jennifer Rubin, has one of the best responses on how to combat the Trump Republican party. She wrote an open letter to Republicans where she calls upon l Republican Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) to advocate for fact-based politics within the Republican party again.

In one segment of her open letter she writes, I bet you are more than a little relieved that President Trump lost. His erratic, outrageous conduct and refusal to operate in the real world no doubt caused you no small amount of embarrassment and pain.

Her directness in this letter tells us that there is still this confusing divide among Republicans. We saw this in the 2016 elections when prominent senators such as Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) gave Trump no support, but swiftly changed their narrative when his voter base agreed with Trump.

Even now we see Graham telling the president to not concede the presidential seat because of voter fraud conspiracies. What happened to the backbones of Republican Congressman? Do they feel so insecure in their ability to win on their own that they are willing to grovel at the feet of a man who doesnt believe or uphold any of their partys core values?

Rubins open letter goes on to call out the Trump based ideology that has overtaken the Republican party. Just as important, it is time to stop indulging the cranks, the conspiracy-mongers and the out-and-out liars in right-wing media and in your own caucus, Rubin wrote. Call out silly and baseless smears; insist on factual rigor at hearings.

An article by Bloomberg News discusses some of the drastic measures some Republicans are willing to take in order to reclaim the party. Some conservatives believe it isnt enough to just end Trumps tenure in office. Rather, they hold that all officials who enabled Trump must be ousted, that Trumpism must be disavowed and the party needs to be destroyed before it can be reconstructed.

Others would argue against such an extreme course of action. Seeing this path as leading to the loss of power within government. Their fear being that the strength they have in Congress being lost to Democrats who wish to enact a progressive agenda.

This fear seems ungrounded seeing as the Republicans have lost the majority of power before and come back to reclaim it. They lost the majority after George W. Bushs second term and would reclaim it once more in 2016. As the Bloomberg article put it, Parties can bounce back quickly, even after defeats that look epochal.

Would the first tactic work? Could Trumpism be extinguished or is it here for the long haul?

It seems unlikely that there will be a break from the Trumpian landscape of American society. An Atlantic article argues that there are already several contenders for the 2024 election coming out of the woodwork.

Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri are aligned with several of Trumps ideologies. Cotton has an op-ed in the New York Times where he urged for the deployment of troops to Americas cities to dispel the riots against police brutality and inequality in the justice system.

Cotton seems to share Trumps radical ideas on the Republican party and plans to be an unwavering defender and future extender of the partys revolution into Trumpism. He has rejected the notion of systemic racism in the police force.. He has a strong opposition stance on immigration and would likely push for harsh immigration reform, the likes of which we have already seen within the Trump administration.

Hawley is another possible carrier of the Trumpism view of the Republian party. He holds a strong America First stance like Trump. Hawley has co-sponsored legislation with Cotton that would cut legal immigration in half that has gained him notoriety as a freshman senator.

The Atlantic article talks with Geoffrey Kabaservice, the director of political studies at the libertain Niskanen Center, who comments that many Republicans see these men as more sophisticated and effective versions of Trump. The question here is will Trumps base go along with a more sophisticated Trump?

Veteran Democratic pollster Stanley B. Greenberg, has been polling the Republican party since 2016 to see what comprises the Trump base. Hes seen that evangelical Christians, conservative Catholics and self-identifying Tea Party members make up about 67% of Trumps base.

A recent Pew study survey shows that the Republican partys composition of registered voters consists of 66% white Christains, 58% men, 57% whites without a college degree and 56% are older than 50. These numbers are large for the Republican party, but do not reflect that overall demographic of society.

A national poll conducted last year by the Public Religion Research Institute found a lot of correlations between those who are conservative and Trumpism ideology. Many believe in building Trumps border wall, imposing a strict Muslim travel ban and limiting legal immigration.

A large majority also endorsed the belief that discrimination aginst white people is as big a problem as that faced by minorities. They believe immigrants are invading America and will eventually replace American culture and ethnic backgrounds.

Roland Brownstein, the author of the Atlantic article mentioned earlier, comments that we have to look at the lasting effects Trumps presidency will have on American society. Most former presidents have played little to no role in the internal inner workings of the party after their tenure, but Trump looks to be shifting this narrative.

Brownstein commented that while working on his article many people he spoke with assumed that Trump would remain highly visible after his tenure in office. Trump may continue to build his base after this election loss to come back in 2024 for his second term.

We have to question not only what Trump will do after he is abdicated from the throne he seems to have sat himself upon, but what will his base do? We can only hope that the former Republican party can take back control from the Trumpers.

Everyday that prominent Republican Congressmen deny the outcome of the election shows us that they have become so entrenched in the Trump ideology that they lack the ability to accept reality. Like desperate children they will hold tight to their beliefs, faces morphed into a grimace, denying the truth in hopes of making their conspiracy theories reality.

Erin Holve can be reached at [emailprotected] and @Erin_Holve on Twitter.

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Trumpers have Hijacked the Republican Party or The Metamorphosis of the Republican Party - The Orion

By Brian Stelter, CNN Business

The leaders of Fox News will never say this out loud, but they believe that their media empire is bigger than President Trump.

And they have billions of reasons to think so: Billions of dollars in revenue along with millions of loyal viewers.

Fox employees are confident that the Biden years will be prosperous for the network, and they're not losing sleep over the prospect of "Trump TV," according to numerous sources at the company.

But some observers think they should be concerned. It is possible that the outgoing President could damage the Fox brand and peel away disillusioned viewers if he launches a media company of his own. It is possible that the right-wing media map, long controlled by Fox, is about to become balkanized.

In the days since Fox and the other major networks called the election for President-elect Joe Biden, Trump has been stoking anger at Fox and promoting the much smaller and often more conspiratorial right-wing networks Newsmax and One America News.

Then again, he has also been watching Fox, tweeting quotes from favorable commentators, and seeking counsel from Fox's 9 p.m. host, Sean Hannity.

Here's the best way to interpret what's going on: Trump and Fox patriarch Rupert Murdoch have had a corporate marriage of convenience for five years. Trump is threatening to break up, but Fox has been through plenty of these rough patches before.

The question now is what Trump might do after he leaves office. A Trump-branded streaming service appears more likely than a "Trump TV" cable channel. But almost anything is possible: A radio show hosted by Trump, an expansion of the Trump campaign's current webcasts, or a licensing deal with a company like Newsmax.

What about a "Donald Trump Tonight" talk show on Fox? Is that out of the question?

The answer is no, at least not entirely. There are almost always pieces that could be moved. For example: Hannity's been at Fox for almost 25 years now. Maybe he could retire and let Trump take his place.

But at the moment, Trump is fuming about the network's coverage. So here is a viewers guide to the months ahead.

Trump was a Fox News viewer before he was a Fox News star. He learned a lot about the Republican party's base by watching the network and calling into the morning show "Fox & Friends" while still starring on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice." He continued to call in to and appear on the network regularly while running for the Republican party's nomination in 2015 and 2016, even as he attacked Fox host Megyn Kelly and lambasted some of the network's commentators.

He has had the same carrot-and-stick approach ever since: Complimenting his Fox supporters -- rewarding them with interviews and Twitter plugs and visits to the White House -- while complaining about Fox's dissenters.

Murdoch used to be vocally critical of Trump's conduct. The media mogul famously wrote on Twitter in the summer of 2015, "When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?"

But Murdoch made peace with Trump as the Republican primary field narrowed and Trump won the nomination. He didn't believe Trump would beat Hillary Clinton in the general election, but when Trump did, Murdoch reached what one family friend later called a "detente."

The media marriage was visible for all to see on TV. Fox touted Trump and he touted the network. The Murdochs profited while Trump benefited from Fox's promotion and propaganda.

Earlier this year I wrote a book titled "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth," based on information from confidential sources in and around Fox. I quoted a former "Fox & Friends" producer who said outsiders misunderstood the relationship.

"People think he's calling up 'Fox & Friends' and telling us what to say. Hell no. It's the opposite," the former producer said. "We tell him what to say."

This braggadocious view is backed up by a scroll through Trump's Twitter feed, which shows that he often starts his day by watching the "Friends" and repeating what they said on TV.

Trump's Fox News fixation was a major theme of his presidency. He hired people from Fox, fired people because of Fox, and gave most of his national TV interviews to Fox. Sometimes it was hard to tell where Trump ended and Fox began. But even with this close relationship, he was still prone to sending mean tweets whenever he didn't like something on the network. Fox executives usually just ignored his complaints. They felt that they, not the President, had the power.

It's important to recognize that Fox has a near-monopoly position in right-wing TV. The network's audience is extraordinarily loyal, as was demonstrated in late 2016 and early 2017 when three of Fox's biggest stars -- Megyn Kelly, Bill O'Reilly and Greta van Susteren -- all left in a nine-month period, and the ratings basically stayed the same.

For many in the TV business, the lesson was that, on Fox at least, everyone is replaceable. Does that lesson apply to Trump too?

In some ways he is Fox's biggest star of the past five years. But now his presidential show is ending.

Trump might think that Fox needs his star power, and on the margins it's true that Trump appearances and interviews are right-wing ratings boosters. But the network was No. 1 long before he became a politician.

As sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild wrote in her 2016 book "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right," about Tea Party supporters in Louisiana, "Fox News stands next to industry, state government, church, and the regular media as an extra pillar of political culture all its own."

"To some," she explained, "Fox is family."

It takes a lot more than a Trump tweet to convince people to abandon family.

Nevertheless, Trump might be trying to dissolve this media marriage.

In line with his past jabs at Fox's news coverage, he wrote on Thursday that "@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE."

Fox's daytime ratings are looking somewhat soft this week, but that's not a surprise, since Biden's victory is interpreted as bad news by the Fox base.

The network is also feeling pressure from the far-right, from channels such as Newsmax, which are criticizing Fox for projecting Biden's win in Arizona and calling Biden the president-elect.

Newsmax's ratings have skyrocketed in recent days, but Fox is still heads and shoulders above all of its challengers.

Trump's tweet on Thursday continued: "Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!"

Trump leveled similar charges against Fox throughout the 2020 campaign.

But his assertion that he was Fox's "Golden Goose" doesn't add up. The network has been growing steadily for years, thanks to a loyal audience that distrusts most of the rest of the national media. Stars like Hannity encourage and worsen this alienation each day by attacking what he calls "fake" news.

Sources inside Fox predicted that Trump would snap back to normal and praise the network's opinion hosts in a day or two. Earlier this week, he posted numerous videos from both Fox and Newsmax's pro-Trump shows.

Axios reported on Thursday that "Trump has told friends he wants to start a digital media company to clobber Fox News."

A subscription streaming service would let him convert rallygoers into paying customers and compete with Fox at the same time.

A Fox insider heaped doubt on that idea, however, by pointing out that Trump is old-fashioned -- he is obsessed with big-screen television, not newfound streaming apps.

When I was working on my book, the Murdoch family friend told me of the relationship between Trump and Fox, "There was something in it for both of them. At the end of the day, business trumps ideology. Business trumps principle."

Whatever he decides to do, the coming months will go a long way toward answering a two-sided question: Does Fox need Trump more, or does Trump need Fox more?

Continued here:
The Trump-Fox News relationship is coming to a head. Here's what might be coming next - WICZ

Across the street from the British embassy, with its red telephone box and Winston Churchill statue, in Washington DC is the residence of the US-vice president. It has its own basketball court, on which Mike Pence reportedly installed a logo from the 1986 film Hoosiers starring Gene Hackman about small-town Indiana sports.

Fortunately, the Washington Post noted a couple of years ago, the logo is removable.

Pence, a former governor of Indiana, and his wife, Karen, will be packing their bags and moving out of the residence in January to make way for Americas first female vice-president, Senator Kamala Harris of California, and her husband Doug Emhoff.

Said to have nurtured ambitions for the presidency since he was 16, Pence must now decide what to do with the rest of his life. Among the 61-year-olds options: a return to his roots in conservative talk radio as a way to remain relevant in his party.

I think he would want to stay involved in Republican politics and probably in a more conventional way than the president, said Michael DAntonio, co-author of The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence. So he could be a broadcaster, and therell be lots of opportunity for that, but he would be nicer than Trump.

When he was on the radio in Indiana, he called himself Rush Limbaugh on decaf. There is a lot of potential in that identity for him.

In a more low-key version of Trumps own ascent-by-celebrity, Pence used his prominence as a conservative radio show host in the 1990s as a springboard to a political career in 2000. He served six terms in the House of Representatives and was an early advocate of the Tea Party movement.

Elected governor of Indiana in 2012, he was widely condemned for a slow response to an HIV outbreak and for signing religious freedom legislation that made it easier for conservatives to refuse service to gay couples. Then he joined forces with Trumps election campaign in 2016 and proved a crucial enabler and apologist for the 45th president.

That continued on Monday when Pence signaled his support for Trumps baseless legal challenges to the 2020 election result, tweeting: Told @VP Team Today, it aint over til its over.. and this AINT over! President @realDonaldTrump has never stopped fighting for us and were gonna Keep Fighting until every LEGAL vote is counted!

But on Tuesday, even as the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, declared: There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration, Pence simply remained silent when asked by reporters, What evidence is there of widespread voter fraud?, Do you think the election was stolen from the president? and Is it time to concede?

It was also reported that Pence and his family would travel to the Florida island of Sanibel on Tuesday for a holiday, in what might be an attempt to distance himself figuratively and literally from Trumps refusal to concede defeat.

The approach has been a hallmark of Pences vice-presidency: at once both unswervingly loyal to Trump and yet also managing to fade into the background at the most politically damaging moments. Pence is head of the White House coronavirus taskforce, but it is Trump who has shouldered the most blame for Americans disastrous pandemic.

DAntonio said: Pence has done well to stay on the right side of Trump without becoming a snarling and profane apostate. Thats pretty impressive in terms of contorting himself into the one shape that may be acceptable to a majority of the voters.

Last weeks election result did not necessarily deal a death blow to Pences hopes of running for the White House in 2024. A victory for Donald Trump would have left Pence or any other Republican with the historically formidable challenge of securing a third consecutive term for the same party.

Instead Trump and Pences resilient haul of more than 70m votes, a higher total than any incumbent president and vice-president in history, was not the wholesale rebuke that Republicans feared. Unless Trump himself runs again, it gives Pence a potential launchpad.

DAntonio continued: He would hold to his beliefs religiously and politically but offer himself as the kinder, gentler version of Trump and, if that were the case, he might actually win a majority of the votes in a national election where Trump never has. He could run with a woman vice-presidential candidate and be very appealing. Im sure that theyre already gaming this out.

In this years election campaign Pences thunder at the vice-presidential debate was stolen by a fly that nestled in his snowy hair. But as a born-again Christian, he once more proved an effective salesman to white evangelical voters turned off by Trumps unholy behaviour. DAntonio added: Its a tremendous asset: thats probably 30m votes right there.

In the electoral college, I think it pretty well aligns with the red portions of the map and he would do better than Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin because those are pretty heavily evangelical states. We definitely have not seen the last of Mike Pence.

There is only one Republican alive who has been part of an incumbent presidential ticket that lost a re-election campaign: Dan Quayle, also from Indiana, and former vice-president under George HW Bush. After defeat in 1992 he wrote three books, founded and sold an insurance business in Indiana, worked in academia and took a lucrative position at a private equity firm.

But old friends of Pence in Indiana hope that he will remain involved in politics. Charles Hiltunen, who was at law school with him in Indianapolis and last saw him about two weeks ago, suggested he could bring his influence to bear on the Senate, where the balance of power depends on two runoff elections in Georgia in January.

Depending on the makeup, thats where Pence could have a role to play as the mediator or trying to get issues going, he said. I think he and Joe Biden have had a great relationship. It would be a good opportunity for him to be a statesman and show some leadership on key issues.

Hiltunen, a principal at the lobbying firm Sextons Creek, also suggested that Pence might go back to conservative radio. Mike would probably be a good spokesperson there if thats what he wanted to do. Its going to be fascinating to me to see what his next chapter is.

One of the biggest questions is whether Pence, once criticised by columnist George Will for his talent for toadyism and appetite for obsequiousness, will continue to defend Trump or decide to cut him loose so that he can pursue his own political aspirations.

Moe Vela, a former senior adviser to Al Gore and Joe Biden, said: He and a whole host of people, including possibly Donald Trump, will be back in 2024. The 70m-plus votes that they received is going to give them oxygen, so I dont think youve seen the last of Mike Pence.

It will be fascinating to see whether he waits to see what Trump is going to do or whether he disregards what Trump is going to do and does his own thing. Is he going to be loyal even post-presidency, or is that loyalty going to end now? I personally think hes going to go out and do his own thing and say, I was so loyal to you. I stood by you. Your times up. Its my turn.

This article was amended on 12 November 2020. An earlier version overlooked Walter Mondale in referring to Dan Quayle as the only person alive who has been part of an incumbent presidential ticket that lost a reelection campaign. Quayle is the only such Republican.

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What will Mike Pence do next after Trump's election loss? - The Guardian