It was two weeks ago today when the Republican National Committee approved a censure resolution that condemned two sitting House Republicans — Wyoming’s Liz Cheney and Illinois’ Adam Kinzinger — for serving on the bipartisan House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. The party’s resolution specifically accused the pair of engaging in “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
To put it mildly, the RNC’s move generated criticisms, even from other Republicans. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski seemed especially unnerved. Referring to the Jan. 6 riot, the senator said, “As Americans we must acknowledge those tragic events, and we cannot allow a false narrative to be created. We cannot deny the truth — to suggest it was ‘legitimate political discourse’ is just wrong.”
Texas Sen. John Cornyn soon after added that referring to Jan. 6 as “legitimate political discourse” was “not an accurate description.” Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly criticized the RNC’s move.
Party Chair Ronna McDaniel scrambled to put out the fire she helped start, and last night, she received some backup from former Vice President Mike Pence. The Washington Post reported:
Former vice president Mike Pence on Thursday defended the Republican National Committee’s resolution to censure two of the party’s members of Congress, saying that the declaration’s reference to “citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse” during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has been misinterpreted.
Pence, who was literally hunted by pro-Trump rioters during the attack on the Capitol, reiterated his believe that Jan. 6 “was a tragic day.” But he proceeded to also defend the Republican National Committee, insisting that the party’s resolution from two weeks ago was not referring to “people that engaged in violence against persons or property that day.” Instead, he said, it was referring to “a whole range of people that have been set upon” by the bipartisan select committee investigating the attack.
It is a matter of perspective whether there was simply a misunderstanding surrounding RNC’s resolution. More notable for now is the former vice president’s interest in weighing in, siding with the party, even as it faces criticisms from leading Republican senators.
Note, Pence’s comments yesterday — he spoke at Stanford, at the invitation of the university’s College Republicans chapter — were his first since his Feb. 4 speech in which the Indiana Republican said, “I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election. President Trump is wrong.” They were remarks that his former boss, not surprisingly, disagreed with, and which positioned Pence against the attitudes of his party’s far-right base. Yesterday, Pence seemed eager to do the opposite, defending the RNC against criticisms from the party’s establishment. It’s hard not to get the impression that the former vice president keeps going back and forth, delivering remarks the right doesn’t like, followed by rhetoric intended to make conservatives happy, only to be followed by different remarks the right doesn’t like, only to be followed by an entirely different speech designed to impress conservatives. Pence is still trying to walk a fine line, putting one foot on each side of that line. I’m skeptical this will be an effective strategy as the Hoosier eyes the 2024 presidential race.
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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