In the wake of Donald Trump’s federal criminal indictment, most observers fall into one of two camps: Some are criticizing the former president over his alleged felonies, and some are criticizing law enforcement for prosecuting the former president over his alleged felonies.
Which group is former Vice President Mike Pence in? Well, both actually. As my MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown noted last night, the Hoosier is “trying to split the difference.”
Last week, just hours after the former president announced his indictment, Pence issued a statement to the Associated Press that read in part, “No one knows exactly what the facts in the law are in this case. And I think it’s important that we wait and each American will understand the facts.”
That was nearly a week ago. Evidently, the former vice president has now read the indictment, and he spoke to The Wall Street Journal about his impressions.
“Having read the indictment,” the former Veep says, “these are very serious allegations. And I can’t defend what is alleged. But the President is entitled to his day in court, he’s entitled to bring a defense, and I want to reserve judgment until he has the opportunity to respond.” He emphasizes both that “no one is above the law” and also that “as Americans, you’re innocent until proven guilty.” That said, he seems troubled by what Mr. Trump is alleged to have casually stashed at Mar-a-Lago.
The good news is that Pence got the story half-right.
“The suggestion that there were documents pertaining to the defense capabilities of the United States and our allies, our nuclear program, to potential vulnerabilities of the United States and our allies…” the former vice president told the Journal. “Even the inadvertent release of that kind of information could compromise our national security and the safety of our armed forces. And, frankly, having two members of our immediate family serving in the armed forces of the United States, I will never diminish the importance of protecting our nation’s secrets.”
The bad news is, he didn’t stop there.
Pence proceeded to condemn the Justice Department, draw a false equivalence to Hillary Clinton, suggest without evidence that Attorney General Merrick Garland might’ve played a direct role in the prosecution, and point to what he considered evidence against federal law enforcement. From the Journal’s report:
[Pence called] out the Justice Department’s role in “two and a half years of a Russia hoax,” as the context for the charges against Mr. Trump. “After years of politicization,” Mr. Pence says, “it’s hard for me to believe that politics didn’t play some role in this decision.”
This was the important part. To hear the former president tell it, the Russia scandal wasn’t real; federal officials investigated it; so Pence thinks it’s safe to assume there must’ve been some kind of political angle to Trump’s classified documents scandal. But this is ridiculous. The Russia scandal was real, and it received federal scrutiny because of its seriousness. To see this as a justification to question the former president’s indictment is absurd. It’s also a failure of logic. Pence didn’t like one federal investigation, so he’s comfortable making baseless assumptions about an entirely different investigation overseen by entirely different people? The former president doesn’t have any evidence of politicized law enforcement, but he has a hunch it’s a problem based on a scandal he’s mischaracterizing, and that’s good enough? This is amazingly unserious for someone who held and is seeking national office.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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