This week, when he emerged as perhaps the central figure in a stinging indictment accusing the former president of a criminal conspiracy to rig the 2020 election, former vice president Mike Pence’s remarkable transformation from Donald J. Trump’s most devoted lieutenant to an essential, if reluctant, witness for his prosecution became clear.
Mike Pence Lands Heart of Trump Indictment: The indictment described Mr. Pence’s attempts to thwart the plans of his former boss and exposed the rift in their relationship, from a testy Christmas Day phone call between the two men to the recent revelation that Mr. Pence kept “contemporaneous notes” on the turbulent time leading up to Jan. 6, 2021.
The indictment claims that when Mr. Pence declined to cooperate with the election plot, Mr. Trump reprimanded him, saying, “You’re too honest.”
Even though he has consistently argued that Mr. Trump’s efforts to invalidate the 2020 election are unacceptable, Mr. Pence has been reluctant to assume the role of Trump’s adversary. He portrays Mr. Trump as more of a victim of terrible events than the instigator of a plot to rig the election.
In a statement on Tuesday night, Mr. Pence declared that “anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.” On Wednesday, however, he was blaming Mr. Trump’s “crackpot lawyers” during a visit to the Indiana state fair and bemoaning the indictment in a phone conversation with fundraisers, adding, “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump mockingly responded, tweeting on his social media platform Truth Social, “I feel badly for Mike Pence, who is attracting no crowds, enthusiasm, or loyalty from people who, as a member of the Trump Administration, should be loving him.”
It is the most recent development in a complex alliance that began when Mr. Trump propelled Mr. Pence to the national scene and will culminate in their historic primary battle in 2024, when a former vice president will take on his presidential benefactor.
“Mike Pence’s Risk of Skipping First Debate Highlights Fractured Trump-Pence Partnership”
The most well-known Republican at risk of skipping the first debate is Mike Pence, who is languishing in the low single digits of primary surveys (his campaign manager informed donors on Wednesday that he had more than 30,000 of the 40,000 contributors needed to qualify). In the party, Mr. Trump continues to enjoy enormous support, and on the campaign road, Mr. Pence frequently praises the successes of the “Trump-Pence administration,” omitting the fact that he now views the Trump side as unsuitable for office.
Marc Short, who served as Vice President Pence’s chief of staff at the conclusion of his term and is currently a key advisor on his 2024 campaign, described the split as “a tragic ending to a great partnership that accomplished a lot for the American people.”
Mr. Pence has been upfront about his disagreement with Mr. Trump on certifying the election on January 6, 2021 since the beginning of his campaign. “However, last month, when the public got access to a transcript of Mr. Pence’s testimony to a Washington grand jury, they discovered 18 consecutive pages that were blacked out, sparking intense rumors about the evidence he may have presented against his former boss.”
The special counsel’s 45-page indictment, which features Mr. Pence in some of the most graphic passages, provided the solution on Tuesday.
The allegations centre on Mr. Trump’s attempts to exert pressure on Mr. Pence to prevent Joseph R. Biden Jr. from being recognised as the winner of the Electoral College on January 6. Mr. Trump encouraged Mr. Pence to take advantage of his ceremonial role that day in order to maintain his position of authority.
“Mike Pence’s Delicate Dance: Navigating Trump’s Demands and the Capitol Indictment”
According to the indictment, one instance of pressure was Mr. Pence, an evangelical Christian, calling Mr. Trump on Christmas Day to wish him a “Merry Christmas.” During the call, the president asked the man to reject the electoral vote. “You know I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome,” Mr. Pence retaliated, the indictment claims.
They conversed once more on January 1st, during which Mr. Pence once more asserted that he lacked the constitutional authority to halt Mr. Biden’s rise and that the effort was “improper,” according to the indictment.
Mr. Pence has insisted for months that “history will hold Donald Trump accountable” for what he did on January 6. But he has refrained from stating whether the legal system ought to.
No politician has perhaps had a narrower needle to thread than Mr. Pence if this distinction is a master class in political needle-threading.
During his tenure of more than four years as Mr. Trump’s running mate and vice president, he earned the nickname “sycophant in chief” from a renowned vice-presidential historian due to his unwavering devotion to Mr. Trump. Then, though, he disobeyed Mr. Trump’s main demand, which was for him to assist in rigging the 2020 election.
A significant portion of the evidence included in the indictment comes from his own emails and conduct. Notably, the indictment concentrates on a situation where Mr. Pence was threatened with death by Trump supporters: the storming of the Capitol.
“Mr. Pence’s Complex Dilemma: Navigating Trump’s Accusations Amidst the Indictment”
Trump claimed on Twitter on January 6 that Mr. Pence “didn’t have the courage” to prevent the election of Mr. Biden after rioters had already entered the Capitol and Mr. Pence made it plain he would disobey the president.
Mr. Pence was taken to a safe area inside the building by the Secret Service exactly one minute later, at 2:25 p.m.
The indictment quotes the crowd as screaming, “Hang Mike Pence!” “Pence where are you? Bring him outside.
That makes this most recent charge against Mr. Trump a much more complicated dilemma for Mr. Pence than the other two, which dealt with Mr. Trump’s retention of secret information after leaving office and hush-money payments to a porn star.
The second indictment, according to Mr. Pence, sent “a terrible message to the wider world that looks to America as a standard of not only democracy, but of justice.” He termed the first indictment “an outrage” and described it as “an outrage.” He recognised that the accusations were “very serious” and that he could not refute them after reading the specifics of the indictment based on confidential materials, but he emphasised that he believed the decision to pursue Mr. Trump was political.
Last month, before the indictment arrived but after the Justice Department had handed Mr. Trump a target letter suggesting that he was likely to be indicted in the election investigation, Mr. Pence expressed his “real” hope that the department would not press charges.
Criminal accusations, according to him, “have everything to do with intent and the president’s mental state at the time.” And I genuinely don’t know what he had in mind that day.
“Indictment Reveals Trump’s Advisors Pressured Him to Act as Capitol Chaos Unfolded”
The indictment claims that Mr. Trump’s closest advisors pressured him to tell his supporters to leave the Capitol as disorder spread across the building. That afternoon, Mr. Trump “repeatedly refused” to do so.
According to members of the House committee that looked into what happened that day, the crowd was within 40 feet of the vice president. Never having left the Capitol, Mr. Pence.
On January 7, just before 4 a.m., Mr. Pence declared the official 2020 election results.
He declared, “To those who caused mayhem in our Capitol today, you did not win.
Mr. Pence waffles back and forth about the events of that day, emphasising and avoiding. During certain visits, he extols the virtues of the Constitution, but he rarely stays too long before heading back to more secure seas.
Mr. Pence talked on Wednesday at the Indiana state fairground on coming together “at a very difficult time in the life of our nation.”
He wasn’t, however, alluding to the indictment of the previous leader.
I won’t talk right now about the news stories that seem to be happening all the time, he remarked. As I travel across the nation, one topic that comes up frequently is the growing expense of living brought on by the Biden administration’s failing policies.