{"id":9710,"date":"2023-01-08T17:45:15","date_gmt":"2023-01-08T17:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=9710"},"modified":"2023-01-08T17:45:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T17:45:15","slug":"hes-got-a-huge-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=9710","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He\u2019s Got a Huge Problem\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Those who know Pence best say he is wrestling with how to recalibrate himself to a Republican base that hasn\u2019t yet forgiven him for refusing Trump\u2019s pressure to overturn the election results \u2014 and maybe never will. When you\u2019ve buried your true self for four years in service to someone who happens to be the most divisive and unpopular former president since Richard Nixon, it\u2019s not so easy to excavate yourself again. Pence, who describes himself as a \u201cconservative, but not in a bad mood about it,\u201d likes to be liked. \u201cHe would love to be reconciled to the president,\u201d a confidant told me. \u201cMy sense is he\u2019s seen that window close.\u201d But neither is Pence willing to take the other path, reject the base who held his life in such low regard, and full-throatedly present himself as the man who saved democracy. \u201cHe\u2019s not,\u201d the confidant told me, \u201cgoing to go Liz Cheney.\u201d”
…
“In July of 2016, Trump picked Pence to be his running mate and automatically resurrected Pence\u2019s political career. Pence repaid his benefactor with four years of nearly unswerving loyalty. When Trump put his water bottle down in a FEMA meeting briefing on the 2018 hurricane season, so did Pence<\/a>. Pence took to describing the president in physically glowing terms, referring regularly to his \u201cbroad shoulders.\u201d<\/a> In one Cabinet meeting, he praised Trump once every 12 seconds<\/a> for three minutes straight.\u201cI had always been loyal to President Donald Trump,\u201d the prologue of his book begins. \u201cHe was my president, and he was my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen he became vice president, he knew that he had to subordinate his views,\u201d Jim Atterholt, Pence\u2019s former gubernatorial chief of staff who would later set up Pence\u2019s legal defense fund during the Russia investigation, told me. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean he didn\u2019t have private conversations with the president where he shared concerns, but in public, he always subordinated his views. People saw that as being obsequious. But really, he was just being Mike Pence, which is a loyal vice president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From afar, Boehner, who himself thought he knew the bounds of Pence\u2019s loyalty, having been the object of it when they served in the House together, marveled. \u201cYou know, there\u2019s loyalty and then there\u2019s, frankly, blind loyalty, which is what he exhibited as vice president because he had hundreds of opportunities to say, \u2018We\u2019re not really quite in the same place,\u2019 or even raisean eyebrow for God\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boehner watched Pence stand by Trump through a number of imbroglios: Pence didn\u2019t turn on Trump amid the \u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d scandal, declining to usurp him on the ticket. In his book, he almost congratulated Trump for how he handled the fallout, writing that during the presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump \u201csquared his shoulders\u201d and \u201capologized to the American people.\u201d He stood by Trump when the president said there were \u201cgood people on both sides\u201d at the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. He defended the administration\u2019s response to Covid, writing an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal<\/em> headlined \u201cThere Isn\u2019t a Coronavirus \u2018Second Wave.\u2019\u201d (Pence writes in his book that editors \u201cplaced a somewhat misleading headline on the essay.\u201d) And he defended Trump\u2019s decision to clear Lafayette Square of protesters, writing that he \u201cwatched as the media went wild, suggesting that the U.S. Park Police had tear-gassed protesters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was Boehner disappointed in his old charge? I asked. \u201cNo, because I know the role of vice president. And when you\u2019re the No. 2 guy, you salute the No. 1 guy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Boehner added: \u201cI sat back and watched this, going back to October of 2016,\u201d \u2014 when the infamous \u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d tape dropped \u2014 \u201cand I\u2019m thinking to myself, \u2018My God, when is Pence going to say something because he can\u2019t be this loyal.\u2019 He was. And he was loyal every single day to Trump. I marveled through all of this, although looking back, I should\u2019ve known he would be. And then he was directly loyal to the Constitution on Jan. 6.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2022\/12\/19\/mike-pence-identity-crisis-00067939<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Those who know Pence best say he is wrestling with how to recalibrate himself to a Republican base that hasn\u2019t yet forgiven him for refusing Trump\u2019s pressure to overturn the election results \u2014 and maybe never will. When you\u2019ve buried your true self for four years in service to someone who happens to be the most divisive and unpopular former president since Richard Nixon, it\u2019s not so easy to excavate yourself again. Pence, who describes himself as a \u201cconservative, but not in a bad mood about it,\u201d likes to be liked. \u201cHe would love to be reconciled to the president,\u201d a confidant told me. \u201cMy sense is he\u2019s seen that window close.\u201d But neither is Pence willing to take the other path, reject the base who held his life in such low regard, and full-throatedly present himself as the man who saved democracy. \u201cHe\u2019s not,\u201d the confidant told me, \u201cgoing to go Liz Cheney.\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“In July of 2016, Trump picked Pence to be his running mate and automatically resurrected Pence\u2019s political career. Pence repaid his benefactor with four years of nearly unswerving loyalty. When Trump put his water bottle down in a FEMA meeting briefing on the 2018 hurricane season, so did Pence. Pence took to describing the president in physically glowing terms, referring regularly to his \u201cbroad shoulders.\u201d In one Cabinet meeting, he praised Trump once every 12 seconds for three minutes straight. \u201cI had always been loyal to President Donald Trump,\u201d the prologue of his book begins. \u201cHe was my president, and he was my friend.\u201d
\n\u201cWhen he became vice president, he knew that he had to subordinate his views,\u201d Jim Atterholt, Pence\u2019s former gubernatorial chief of staff who would later set up Pence\u2019s legal defense fund during the Russia investigation, told me. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean he didn\u2019t have private conversations with the president where he shared concerns, but in public, he always subordinated his views. People saw that as being obsequious. But really, he was just being Mike Pence, which is a loyal vice president.\u201d<\/p>\n

From afar, Boehner, who himself thought he knew the bounds of Pence\u2019s loyalty, having been the object of it when they served in the House together, marveled. \u201cYou know, there\u2019s loyalty and then there\u2019s, frankly, blind loyalty, which is what he exhibited as vice president because he had hundreds of opportunities to say, \u2018We\u2019re not really quite in the same place,\u2019 or even raise an eyebrow for God\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boehner watched Pence stand by Trump through a number of imbroglios: Pence didn\u2019t turn on Trump amid the \u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d scandal, declining to usurp him on the ticket. In his book, he almost congratulated Trump for how he handled the fallout, writing that during the presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump \u201csquared his shoulders\u201d and \u201capologized to the American people.\u201d He stood by Trump when the president said there were \u201cgood people on both sides\u201d at the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. He defended the administration\u2019s response to Covid, writing an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal headlined \u201cThere Isn\u2019t a Coronavirus \u2018Second Wave.\u2019\u201d (Pence writes in his book that editors \u201cplaced a somewhat misleading headline on the essay.\u201d) And he defended Trump\u2019s decision to clear Lafayette Square of protesters, writing that he \u201cwatched as the media went wild, suggesting that the U.S. Park Police had tear-gassed protesters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was Boehner disappointed in his old charge? I asked. \u201cNo, because I know the role of vice president. And when you\u2019re the No. 2 guy, you salute the No. 1 guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Boehner added: \u201cI sat back and watched this, going back to October of 2016,\u201d \u2014 when the infamous \u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d tape dropped \u2014 \u201cand I\u2019m thinking to myself, \u2018My God, when is Pence going to say something because he can\u2019t be this loyal.\u2019 He was. And he was loyal every single day to Trump. I marveled through all of this, although looking back, I should\u2019ve known he would be. And then he was directly loyal to the Constitution on Jan. 6.\u201d”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[221,517,509,968,506],"class_list":["post-9710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-donald-trump","tag-mike-pence","tag-politics","tag-republican-party","tag-republicans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9711,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9710\/revisions\/9711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}