Opinion
The martyrdom of Mike Pence
Sidney
Blumenthal
As vice-president, he abased himself and his office.
In reward, Donald Trump sent a mob to kill him. Now, as another impeachment
trial looms, he is cast out from Republican ranks
Sun 7 Feb
2021 06.00 GMT
After
Donald Trump had exhausted all of his claims of voter fraud and could contrive
no more conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from
him, and after his revolving menagerie of legal mouthpieces had all of their
motions tossed out of every venue up to the supreme court, and after his
reliable enabler, Attorney General William Barr, informed him his accusations
were false and he had reached the end of the line, and resigned, Trump came as
a last resort to rest his slipping hold on power on his most unwavering
defender and ceaseless flatterer, who had never let him down: his
vice-president, Mike Pence.
Nobody was
more responsible for fostering the cult of Trump. The evangelical Pence had
been Trump’s rescuer, starting with his forgiveness for the miscreant in the
crisis during the 2016 campaign over Trump’s Access Hollywood “grab them by the
pussy” tape and then over the disclosure of the “Individual One” hush money
payoff to a porn star about a one-night stand to shut her up before election
day – AKA “the latest baseless allegations”. Pence was the indispensable
retainer who delivered the evangelical base, transforming it through the
alchemy of his faith into Trump’s rock of ages. After every malignant episode,
from Charlottesville (“I stand with the president”) to coronavirus (“The president
took another historic step”), the pious Pence could be counted on to bless
Trump for his purity of heart and to shepherd the flock of true believers.
“Trump’s
got the populist nationalists,” Stephen Bannon, Trump’s pardoned former senior
adviser, remarked. “But Pence is the base. Without Pence, you don’t win.”
Withstanding
the howling winds of narcissism, the unshakably self-abasing Pence upheld the
cross over Trump. On the evening of 3 May 2017, Trump welcomed his evangelical
advisory board for dinner in the Blue Room of the White House.
“I’ve been
with [Trump] alone in the room when the decisions are made,” Pence testified to
the assembled pastors. “He and I have prayed together. This is somebody who
shares our views, shares our values, shares our beliefs.”
Nobody more
than Pence had modeled adulation of Trump to become the standard for
sycophantic imitation. At the first meeting of members of Trump’s cabinet, on
12 June 2017, the president called on each to offer praise.
“I’m going to
start with our vice-president. Where is our vice-president?” Trump asked.
“We’ll start with Mike and then we’ll just go around, your name, your
position.”
“This is
just the greatest privilege of my life,” Pence said, setting the tone for the
others.
By August,
Pence had mentioned Trump’s “broad shoulders” 17 times, to proclaim his manly
strength. At the cabinet meeting of 20 December 2017, Pence praised Trump 14
times in just under three minutes, a commendation every 12.5 seconds,
concluding in his last breathless, fawning words: “And we are making America
great again.” On 6 June 2018, at a meeting of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, Trump suddenly and inexplicably put his water bottle on the floor.
Without missing a beat, Pence, seated beside him, put his bottle on the floor
too.
Finally,
after 61 failed lawsuits challenging the presidential election, Trump’s lawyers
Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis told him there was a magic solution. Pence,
presiding over the counting of the ballots of the electoral college before a
joint session of Congress on 6 January, could overturn results in the key
states that had gone against Trump, by deciding himself which votes to certify
and which to reject. Rightwing social media was awash with rumors about “the
Pence card”.
Pence
sought the opinions of an array of conservative legal experts, who uniformly
stated that he had no such authority. For days, Trump badgered him. On 4
January, campaigning in Georgia for Republican senatorial candidates, Trump
said: “If the liberal Democrats take the Senate and the White House, and
they’re not going to take the White House, we’re going to fight like hell, I
hope Mike Pence comes through for us, I have to tell you … He’s a great guy. Of
course, if he doesn’t come through I won’t like him quite as much … He’s a
wonderful man, a smart man and a man I like a lot.”
You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you
can go down in history as a pussy
Donald Trump
On the day
before the electoral college votes were to be certified, 5 January, Trump
tweeted, “The Vice-President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen
electors.” Hours later, Trump cornered Pence in the Oval Office. He had brought
along a rightwing law professor, John Eastman, from Chapman University, who
argued that Pence had the power to overturn the electoral college. Eastman had
written an op-ed asserting that Kamala Harris was ineligible to run for
vice-president because she was not a proper US citizen – a new birtherism.
Trump told Pence Eastman was “very highly qualified”. For once, Pence stood his
ground. His reverence turned into recalcitrance. He rebuffed Trump. There was a
line he would not cross.
That night,
after the New York Times reported that Pence felt “he would need to balance the
president’s misguided beliefs about government with his own years of preaching
deference to the constitution”, Trump issued a statement: “The New York Times
report regarding comments Vice-President Pence supposedly made to me today is
fake news. He never said that. The Vice-President and I are in total agreement
that the Vice-President has the power to act.”
Before dawn
on 6 January, after it was clear the Republicans had lost both seats in Georgia
and with them control of the Senate, Trump frantically engaged in a tweet
storm.
“States
want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities
and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike
Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this
is a time for extreme courage!”
Then Trump
called Pence at the vice-presidential residence, the Naval Observatory, to
deliver an ultimatum. “You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you
can go down in history as a pussy,” Trump said. But Pence spurned him again. He
hung up and got into his motorcade. As he drove to the Capitol, Trump mounted
the platform at his “Stop the Steal” rally outside the White House, to address
thousands of followers.
Trump knew
Pence intended to perform his constitutionally prescribed duty to preside over
the process that would seal Joe Biden’s election. Pence had repeatedly told
Trump that was what he would do. Trump had tried every means to dislodge him
from his position, but Pence proved immovable. Trump’s call that morning,
threatening him as a “pussy”, was the last desperate gambit. Trump knew the
string was played out.
But when he
addressed the crowd he had assembled, Trump pretended he did not know what
Pence was going to do. Stung by Pence’s emphatic refusal, he knew he was
retailing a false narrative. He feigned that Pence had not yet made up his mind
– and that the entire decision now depended upon him. Trump built up the
dramatic suspense, stoked the crowd’s anger and directed its fixation. Trump turned
the entire crisis on to Pence.
Trump
referred to Pence 13 times in his speech:
I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I
hope so. I hope so. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the
election … All Vice-President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to
re-certify and we become president and you are the happiest people. And I
actually, I just spoke to Mike. I said: ‘Mike, that doesn’t take courage. What
takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage’ … And Mike Pence is going
to have to come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for
our country because you’re sworn to uphold our constitution … And Mike Pence, I
hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our constitution and for the good
of our country. And if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you. I
will tell you right now. I’m not hearing good stories … They want to
re-certify. But the only way that can happen is if Mike Pence agrees to send it
back. Mike Pence has to agree to send it back. So I hope Mike has the courage
to do what he has to do. And I hope he doesn’t listen to the Rinos [Republicans
In Name Only] and the stupid people that he’s listening to …
Targeting
Pence, Trump urged his followers forward. “And we fight. We fight like hell.
And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country any more …
So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue”– to the Capitol.
Trump was
well aware that the crowd contained violent elements. He knew it was not like
one of the festive crowds that attended his campaign rallies, warmed up with
singing and dancing. In his 1 October debate with Biden, Trump had given a
shoutout to the white supremacist Proud Boys, calling out their name and giving
them a slogan: “Stand back and stand by.” On 12 December, Proud Boys led
thousands of paramilitary demonstrators to protest against the election result
in Washington.
“WE HAVE
JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!” Trump tweeted that morning to greet them. That night,
the Proud Boys roamed the streets, provoking fights. Four people were stabbed,
one shot, a police officer assaulted and 33 people arrested. The Proud Boys’
leader, Enrique Tarrio, was later arrested for burning a “Black Lives Matter”
banner at a historic Black church and charged with two counts of felony for
illegal possession of high-capacity guns.
“We won the
Presidential Election, by a lot. FIGHT FOR IT. Don’t let them take it away!”
Trump tweeted on 18 December. The next day he tweeted: “Big protest on 6
January. Be there, will be wild!”
Arriving at
the Capitol that day, taking his place in the Senate chamber at 1pm, Pence
issued a statement: “It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and
defend the constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to
determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”
Trump was
just finishing speaking. The spearhead of the mob had already broken through
the police perimeter on the west side of the Capitol. Just after 2pm, led by
the Proud Boys and other paramilitary groups, the mob poured through smashed
windows and doors and rushed into the corridors, chanting: “Hang Mike Pence!”
“Once we
found out Pence turned on us and that they had stolen the election, like,
officially, the crowd went crazy. I mean, it became a mob,” said one rioter,
later arrested, in a video posted on YouTube. Another of those arrested texted:
“When we found out Pence fucked us, we all stormed the Capitol building and
everyone forced entry and started breaking shit. It was a like a scene out of a
movie.”
But many of
those assaulting the Capitol had already received Trump’s tinfoil cue to focus
on Pence. The FBI charging paper for one arrested rioter, an alleged QAnon
militant, quoted a text message two weeks before the attack: “I’m there for the
greatest celebration of all time after Pence leads the Senate flip!! OR IM THERE
IF TRUMP TELLS US TO STORM THE FUKIN CAPITAL IMA DO THAT THEN! We don’t want
any trouble but they are not going to steal this election that I guarantee
bro!!”
Secret
service agents hustled Pence out of the chamber. “Where’s Mike Pence?” chanted
the mob, racing to locate him. They carried a noose, marked with his name.
Pence was in an office only about 100ft away. A quick-thinking Capitol police
officer steered the rampaging throng to chase him in the opposite direction. At
2.24pm, amid the mayhem, Trump tweeted: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to
do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution,
giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent
or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the
truth!”
Dozens of
messages immediately appeared on Gab, a social media networking site favored by
neo-Nazis and white supremacists, encouraging those inside the Capitol to
capture Pence.
“I heard at
least three different rioters at the Capitol say that they hoped to find
Vice-President Mike Pence and execute him by hanging him from a Capitol Hill
tree as a traitor,” reported Jim Bourg, the Reuters picture editor in
Washington. “It was a common line being repeated. Many more were just talking
about how the VP should be executed.”
At 3.55pm,
Pence tweeted: “The violence and destruction taking place at the US Capitol
Must Stop and it Must Stop Now.” Nearly five hours later, the Capitol had been
cleared, the Senate reconvened and Pence stood at the dais. On the desk, a note
had been left for him by the shirtless, horned fur-hatted, face-painted,
self-proclaimed “QAnon shaman”, one Jacob Chansley.
“It’s only
a matter of time, justice is coming,” it read.
At 3.34am,
in the early hours of 7 January, Pence affirmed that Joe Biden had won the
election. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, would die as a
result of the riot; 140 police were injured.
Throughout
the pandemonium in the Capitol, Trump did not seek to discover whether Pence
was safe. He did not call him. He was watching the insurrection on TV at the
White House, “excited” and “delighted”, according to the Republican senator Ben
Sasse, who told of accounts heard from aides who were with the president. Trump
never did call Pence.
“I’ve known
Mike Pence for ever,” said a friend, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma. “I’ve
never seen Pence as angry … He said, ‘After all the things I’ve done for
[Trump].’”
On 8
January, Trump announced he would not attend the inauguration. Pence stated
that he would be there, to see Biden take the oath of office.
On the
mantle above the fireplace in his library at the vice-president’s residence,
Pence placed a framed passage from the Bible’s Book of Jeremiah.
“‘For I
know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘Plans to prosper you and
not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
For Pence,
the quotation from scripture was a complacent blessing from the gospel of
prosperity. (He conveniently did not frame other passages from Jeremiah
preceding and following his favorite citation: “Do not let the prophets and
diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them
to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,”
declares the Lord … “You should put any maniac who acts like a prophet into the
stocks and neck-irons.”)
Pence did
not know God’s plan for him. He was just certain that God had one in mind.
Pence did not voice the prophesy. He was no prophet. He was not the oracle. But
he knew that he had a divinely ordained destiny. He believed it would unfold
with his heavenly ascent to the highest position, becoming president as reward
for his faithful humility. He adhered to the evangelical notion of “servant
leadership”, Marc Short, his chief of staff and a fellow evangelical, explained
to the Atlantic. Pence modeled himself on Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, a
model for evangelicals to follow in his example toward Trump: “Whoever wants to
become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must
be your slave.”
“Servant
leadership is biblical,” Short said. “That’s at the heart of it for Mike, and
it comes across in his relationship with the president.”
The
political marriage of Pence and Trump was an alliance of opposites, a
calibrated balancing act of the pious and the pitiless, the sacred and the
profane, the bland Hoosier and the brash New Yorker, the lockstep partisan and
the egotist. It was also a team of media celebrities, minor and major, the
trusted voice from the heartland leading his true believers to the TV reality
show confidence man.
Pence had
risen to prominence as a conservative talkshow host in Indiana, “His Mikeness”,
self-described as “Rush Limbaugh on decaf”, opening every show: “Greetings
across the amber waves of grain.” When local Republicans urged him to run for
Congress, his intimate adviser, his wife, Karen, whom he calls “Mother”,
interpreted two hawks flying overhead as God’s sign. Pence served six
undistinguished terms, ingratiated himself with the Koch brothers’ donor
network as its servant, and the party elevated him to the Indiana governor’s
chair. His principal accomplishment was to enact a bill discriminating against
gay people, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which under widespread
criticism and threats of boycott he essentially rescinded. He was uncertain of
re-election; then Trump plucked him from obscurity. Another sign.
The
relationship was set in stone at the beginning. The Access Hollywood tape was
the formative event. Everything followed from Trump’s risky business and
Pence’s avid devotion. When the scandal broke, the Republican National
Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, organized pressure on Trump to quit and
Pence to assume his place, according to Pence’s biographer Tom LoBianco.
“Donald
Trump should withdraw and Mike Pence should be our nominee effective
immediately,” tweeted Senator John Thune, of South Dakota. Karen Pence was
“livid”. But Pence refused to drink from the chalice he was offered, believing
it to be poisoned. If he replaced Trump, he would be blamed for destroying him
and the inevitable election defeat. Instead, he believed Trump would lose and
he, Pence, would be ideally positioned to be the Republican nominee in 2020, to
take on President Hillary Clinton. And when Trump survived and went on to win,
Pence was the next in line.
Pence was
not blind about Trump. Karen Pence confided to one of his aides: “We knew we
were signing up for something unique. We knew there would be times he’d say and
do things we’d never do. We understood that … Obviously, it’s disappointing,
but it doesn’t change the mission.”
Trump was
Pence’s cross to bear. Whether Pence respected him was beside the point. Trump
only wanted to be worshipped. He obviously thought he had endless use of the
simplistic Pence as his tool. But Pence knew that both he and Trump were tools
of the Lord, though for different purposes. He wanted to create a worshipful
presence for Trump, toward greater ends about which Trump was completely
unknowing. Pence had been put into his position for the Lord’s purposes, in an
unfolding divine story. He was right with the Lord. He was not only elected; he
was among the elect. The Lord blessed his servant. The blessing was a promise
of his ever-rising advancement so long as he was steadfast. He stayed the
course no matter the tribulations and privations. His destiny had been written.
He proved himself worthy by his steadfastness in bearing the desecrations of
the unworthy Trump. Every further revelation of Trump’s character confirmed
that Pence was being tested for the time beyond Trump. Pence carried his cross
for a glorious consummation for the most faithful of the Lord’s chosen, Mike
Pence.
If Pence
maintained his equanimity, he could keep moving forward. His voice was steady,
his manner was steady and when a fly landed on his head in his debate with
Kamala Harris, he was steady. He had practice with far greater distractions.
This fly didn’t do anything embarrassing, except land on his head. It was not
the fly’s fault. Pence could bear everything.
But the
more Pence succeeded in achieving his perfection of humility and show of
gratitude, the more he persuaded the evangelicals it was Trump who was divinely
anointed. Regardless of how Pence saw himself in his inner vision, through his
ministrations the evangelicals came to see Trump as the one who made America
right with the Lord. Pence made sure the credit went to his lord. He rendered
unto Caesar.
Pence did
not know that staying the course would be his undoing. His role as president of
the Senate in presiding over the counting of the electoral college votes was
largely ceremonial and passive. Pence believed he was true to the constitution
–under God. He had taken his oath on his Bible. His presence naturally lent the
process legitimacy. For Trump, that was the problem. Pence’s faith created a
schism not only with Trump, but also with his ambition.
Trump by
his lights had not lost the election; it was stolen. Trump could never be a
loser. He had won. He was being deprived of his victory. Pence alone could
change it. If he did not, he explained Trump’s failure. The fault was displaced
on to Pence.
We knew we were signing up for something unique
Karen Pence
Pence
bestowed on Trump the fatal kiss. Pence was the Judas. He did not ever imagine
he was Judas, but always God’s servant. Judas knew he was betraying Jesus, but
Pence never thought he was betraying Trump. Pence never knew that all along,
this was part of God’s plan.
Upholding
his oath, Pence’s hopes turned to ashes. He became something he never anticipated:
the fall guy. He never expected he would be Trump’s patsy. It was one thing to
be his flunky, but Pence never thought, even after all the other adults in the
room had departed in obloquy, he’d be the last patsy standing.
Pence may
consider himself one of the most unselfish Christians. The extreme case of
humility is when a person gives his all to someone who is completely selfish
and has no other purpose. Now loathed by evangelicals, Pence must console
himself with the holy paradox invested in martyrs, in which the martyr scorned
by his own people suffers for the greater good of the Lord. Only later is the
martyr beatified as a saint. Becoming such a martyr might get Pence a
stained-glass window in some future crystal cathedral, but it will not get him
anywhere in the Republican party.
Pence is
reportedly isolated, in a borrowed cabin in Indiana, having arranged to be a
“visiting fellow” at the Heritage Foundation.
No
evangelical leader has stepped forward to defend his honor. No Republican
leader has vouched for his virtue, obligations and higher loyalty. Abandoned
and alone, the object of hatred, the target of threats. Pence had taught his
flock to worship its lord and cast out heretics. He delivered everything to
Trump, and Trump delivered Pence to the mob as a scapegoat. Pence had shown
them the way to follow Trump as a true servant. And they did.
“Hang Mike
Pence!”
Sidney
Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary
Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of
Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers
of Earth
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