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You can thank Pence for DeVos. They are longtime allies, going back decades, who bonded over such shared passions as making it O.K. for students to use government money, in the form of vouchers, at religious schools. Pence cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate to confirm her as education secretary. It was the first time in history that a vice president had done that for a cabinet nominee.

Fiercely opposed to abortion, Pence once spoke positively on the House floor about historical figures who actually placed it beyond doubt that the offense of abortion was a capital offense, punishable even by death. He seemed to back federal funds for anti-gay conversion therapy. He promoted a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

He is absolutely certain that his moral view should govern public policy, DAntonio told me.

DAntonio then recounted two stories that he heard from college classmates of Pences after the book had gone to bed, so theyre not in there. One involved a woman in Pences weekly college prayer group. When she couldnt describe a discrete born again experience, he lectured her on her deficiencies as a Christian and said that she really wasnt the sort of Christian that needed to be in this group, DAntonio said.

Another involved a college friend of Pences who later sought his counsel about coming out as gay. DAntonio said that Pence told the friend: You have to stay closeted, you have to get help, youre sick and youre not my friend anymore.

According to DAntonios book, Pence sees himself and fellow Christian warriors as a blessed but oppressed group, and his hope for the future resided in his faith that, as chosen people, conservative evangelicals would eventually be served by a leader whom God would enable to defeat their enemies and create a Christian nation.

I asked DAntonio the nagging, obvious question: Is America worse off with Trump or Pence?

I have to say that I prefer Donald Trump, because I think that Trump is more obvious in his intent, he said, while Pence tends to disguise his agenda. DAntonio then pointed out that if Pence assumed the presidency in the second half of Trumps first term, hed be eligible to run in 2020 and 2024 and potentially occupy the White House for up to 10 years.

Heaven help us.

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Opinion | Mike Pence, Holy Terror - The New York Times