Can Pence’s Trump-lite blend of policy and politeness convince Republicans? Former vice-president strikes a delicate balance between praise and condemnation of his old boss as he considers a 2024 run
David Smith in Washington
Sun 18 Dec 2022 10.00 GMT
There were servings of croissants, macarons and copies of a book entitled So Help Me God. There were reporters but it could not be described as a stampede; one front row seat was nabbed by the Guardian while others assigned to the media were eventually regular audience members.
Mike Pence, the former US vice-president, walked into the auditorium at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) thinktank in Washington last week. It was the latest stop on a lengthy book tour that is ostensibly promoting his memoir while also testing the water for a presidential run in 2024.
At event after event, in interview after interview, Pence has framed his book as a story about growing up in small-town Indiana, putting his faith in Jesus Christ and marrying “the girl of my dreams”. But the 63-year-old has also struck a delicate balance when it comes to his former boss, President Donald Trump – coming both to bury Caesar and to praise him.
Pence has repeatedly defended his decision to resist pressure from his boss to overturn the 2020 election – while stopping short of condemning Trump as a traitor who should never hold elected office again.
Asked by the Associated Press what consequences Trump should face for the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, the former VP replied: “That’s up to the American people … And look, I’ll always be proud of the record of the Trump administration.” Asked by NBC’s Meet the Press if the president committed a criminal act in fomenting an insurrection, he answered: “Well, I don’t know if it is criminal to listen to bad advice from lawyers.”
In a town hall broadcast by CNN, Pence said: “Let me just say that it was a great honor for me to be a part of the Trump-Pence administration … But in the end, our administration did not end well.” And he told CBS News’s Face the Nation: “While the president and I parted amicably, I believe as we look to the future, we’ll have better choices.”
At the AEI last week Pence charted a similar course, seeking to embrace the Trump legacy while simultaneously keeping the man at arm’s length. They were always an odd couple: a blowhard celebrity billionaire from New York accused of sexual harassment and a pious midwestern governor who refuses to dine alone with a woman who is not his wife.
But Pence claimed that an unlikely bond formed between them.
“President Trump wasn’t just my president, he was my friend,” he said “We really developed a close working relationship, which I know surprises people … It isn’t that we didn’t have differences, and I recount a few of them in the book, but during the administration I thought it was always important that I express my opinion to the president in private.
Yeah, um, that is so not a gonna happen. Bye Mike.
Mike Pence
Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2022 2:04 pm
by noblepa
How cute.
He actually believes that he has a political future.
Mike Pence
Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2022 2:35 pm
by AndyinPA
It would be, "Mike, who?" even in Indiana if Manafort had not chosen him to run as VP.
Mike Pence
Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2022 3:25 pm
by sugar magnolia
Bless his heart.
Mike Pence
Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2022 5:08 pm
by humblescribe
"I'll always be proud of the record of the Trump Administration."
Help me out here, friends and neighbors, I beseech you.
Just what was accomplished during this administration? Depending upon your point of view my list is rather short.
-- Tax cuts for the wealthy with a few crumbs tossed to the masses.
-- Three miles(!) of new border wall.
-- Rapid development of the Covid vaccine despite not advocating its use to all.
-- Letting hundreds of thousands of people die needlessly in the interim with poor executive action under the Defense Production Act and other provisions.
-- Jacking up the National Debt by trillions to keep businesses open and people off welfare.
-- Gaffing the federal judiciary with unqualified and underqualifed judges to make really bad decisions. (See: Kavanaugh, Brett; Barret, Amy; Cannon, Eileen for starters.) (Gaff here is used in the slang sense, not in the piscatorial sense.)
Mike Pence
Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2022 10:34 pm
by pipistrelle
humblescribe wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 5:08 pm
"I'll always be proud of the record of the Trump Administration."
Help me out here, friends and neighbors, I beseech you.
Just what was accomplished during this administration? Depending upon your point of view my list is rather short.
-- Tax cuts for the wealthy with a few crumbs tossed to the masses.
I'm not sure about the crumbs. My taxes were worse, not better.
humblescribe wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 5:08 pm
"I'll always be proud of the record of the Trump Administration."
Help me out here, friends and neighbors, I beseech you.
Just what was accomplished during this administration? Depending upon your point of view my list is rather short.
-- Tax cuts for the wealthy with a few crumbs tossed to the masses.
I'm not sure about the crumbs. My taxes were worse, not better.
From what I remember, They stopped the taxes slightly to make people think they had cut everyone's taxes... until Tax Rebate time, when people found out they had slashed the Tax Rebates to nothing in order to pay for the tax cuts to rich people.
Mike Pence
Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2022 11:11 am
by AndyinPA
Yeah, I seem to remember they put a delayed poison pill into the bill.
humblescribe wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 5:08 pm
"I'll always be proud of the record of the Trump Administration."
Help me out here, friends and neighbors, I beseech you.
Just what was accomplished during this administration? Depending upon your point of view my list is rather short.
-- Tax cuts for the wealthy with a few crumbs tossed to the masses.
I'm not sure about the crumbs. My taxes were worse, not better.
Yes, Pip, there were some who fell into the cracks and paid more in taxes. I had a few clients who wound up paying more. Those were mostly people who had high W2 income and lived in high-taxed states. In addition those who had significant 212 deductions (like investment fees, unreimbursed employee expenses, other expenses to produce income) found that those deductions were eliminated by the act, and the increased "standard deduction" was inadequate to replace the deductions that were eliminated.
This act eliminated the deduction for personal exemptions but increased the standard deduction by a lot. This change resulted in reduced taxable income and lower taxes overall, especially if some of their income was in the form of qualified dividends or long-term capital gains.
I am not sure what Suranis is referring to with "tax rebates." We do have tax credits, and to my knowledge those credits were increased slightly for people with small children. (My practice was primarily with oldsters whose children had flown the nest, so I wasn't up on the child tax credits.)
Mike Pence
Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2022 4:04 pm
by noblepa
I have not really researched this, and I may be wrong.
I believe that some middle class taxpayers DID benefit from the Trump tax cuts. I'm thinking of individuals, or couples who live in rental property, such as an apartment or a rented house. They do not have large deductions for mortgage interest or property taxes and couldn't benefit from itemizing. The enormous increase in the standard deduction probably helped them a lot.
Prior to the tax cuts, they were probably taking the standard deduction anyway, so the increase resulted in a significant decrease in their taxable income.
humblescribe wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 5:08 pm
"I'll always be proud of the record of the Trump Administration."
Help me out here, friends and neighbors, I beseech you.
Just what was accomplished during this administration? Depending upon your point of view my list is rather short.
-- Tax cuts for the wealthy with a few crumbs tossed to the masses.
I'm not sure about the crumbs. My taxes were worse, not better.
Worse for me, too.
Mike Pence
Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2022 6:11 pm
by Dr. Ken
Mike Pence
Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2022 6:36 pm
by RTH10260
I don't think that was very wise. His former room mate at the WH will now have an extra year to hammer him flat as tin foil
Mike Pence
Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2022 4:01 am
by Ben-Prime
RTH10260 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 26, 2022 6:36 pm I don't think that was very wise. His former room mate at the WH will now have an extra year to hammer him flat as tin foil
I prefer to think of Pence at this point as the sacrificial lamb who will keep Trump ranting at an even higher level until he either burns out or burns away any remaining waffling support.
I mean, if Pence is still claiming to be a Christian, it would be completely in character for him.
Mike Pence cites Christmas as a reason not to indict Trump for 'bad advice from lawyers' Jan. 6
David Edwards
December 19, 2022
Former Vice President Mike Pence urged the Justice Department not to indict former President Donald Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and trying to overturn the 2020 election.
During a Monday interview on Fox News, Pence was asked if the Jan. 6 Committee should issue a criminal referral for Trump.
Pence accused the committee of having a "partisan taint."
"Congress has no formal role in Justice Department decisions," he added. "So they can make recommendations today. But when it comes to the Justice Department's decision about bringing charges in the future, I would hope that they would not bring charges against the former president."
"The president's actions and words on Jan. 6 were reckless but I don't know that it's criminal to take bad advice from lawyers," the former vice president opined.
"There might be criminal referrals on that too," Fox News host Dana Perino observed.
Pence suggested that Trump should not be indicted because of the Christmas holiday season.
"I want to tell you, I hope the Justice Department understands the magnitude of the very idea of indicting a former president of the United States," Pence remarked. "I think that would be terribly divisive in the country at a time when the American people want to see us heal. At this time of year, we're all thinking about the most important things in our lives: our faith, our family. And my hope is, the Justice Department think very carefully before proceeding."
Watch the video below from Fox News.
Mike Pence
Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2022 8:26 am
by pipistrelle
"The president's actions and words on Jan. 6 were reckless but I don't know that it's criminal to take bad advice from lawyers," the former vice president opined.
He was telling them what bad advice to give him. Good one.
Mike Pence
Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2022 9:26 am
by RTH10260
Luckily for us the DOJ will evaluate the J6 evidence after the holidays and they can safely ignore Pences suggestion without feeling bad about the timing
Mike Pence
Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2022 3:40 pm
by humblescribe
Hey Mike!
You don't want the DOJ to indict tfg so that the country can heal. Really, now. Try pleading your case with your fellow Rethuglicans about healing the country, and then maybe--just maybe--we can talk about dialing down criminal action against your former running mate. You and your elk just want the same old, same old, reactionary views to smother contemporary society.
Quit living in the '50s and before, Mike. Ain't. Gonna. Happen.
Mike Pence
Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2022 5:08 pm
by Foggy
Boiled down to its essence, President Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon amounted to "so the country can heal".
I wasn't pleased with that one either.
Mike Pence
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2023 3:27 pm
by RTH10260
Pence Responds after Trump Blames Pro-Lifers for GOP Midterm Struggles
Ari Blaff
Tue, January 3, 2023 at 2:30 PM GMT+1
Former vice president Mike Pence responded to Donald Trump’s comments blaming pro-lifers for the GOP’s lackluster midterm performance on Monday by endorsing a statement released by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
“The approach to winning on abortion in federal races, proven for a decade is this: state clearly the ambitious consensus pro-life position and contrast that with the extreme view of Democrat opponents. We look forward to hearing that position fully articulated by Mr. Trump and all presidential candidates,” the organization said in a statement released Monday.
The remarks drew Pence’s approval on Twitter Monday night.
I don't think that was very wise. His former room mate at the WH will now have an extra year to hammer him flat as tin foil 
