It’s been nearly six months since former Vice President Mike Pence appeared on Fox News and gave the political world an unexpected jolt. “Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years,” the Hoosier said, “and that’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.”
In early August, Pence appeared at a conservative event in Georgia, again refused to extend support to his former boss and said he’s “staying out of the presidential campaign.”
That is, he’s trying to stay out of the campaign. As The Hill noted, Trump apparently thought it’d be a good idea to bring Pence back up over the Labor Day weekend.
Former President Trump in an interview broadcast late Sunday slammed Vice President Harris as “vicious” and claimed her treatment of former Vice President Mike Pence during a debate was “horrible.” Trump, speaking on Fox News’s “Life, Liberty and Levin,” pointed to the viral moment during the 2020 vice presidential debate when Harris rebuked Pence’s interruption with the phrase, “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking.”
The Republican candidate, referring to Harris, specifically said, “[S]he’s a nasty person. The way she treated Mike Pence was horrible.”
Trump: The way Kamala Harris treated Mike Pence was horrible. pic.twitter.com/URAJ9cid2o
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 2, 2024
During the same interview, Trump went on to point to the 2020 vice presidential debate as evidence of Harris being “vicious.”
To the extent that reality still has any meaning, it’s true that when Pence and Harris participated in an October 2020 debate, the two traded some barbs, as is usually the case. At one point, when the then-Republican incumbent tried to interrupt the then-Democratic senator, she replied, “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking.”
Your mileage might vary, but to characterize the exchange as “horrible” and “vicious” seems rather ridiculous.
If, on the other hand, Trump is looking for someone who was actually “horrible” toward Pence, I might hand the former president a mirror. In case anyone’s forgotten, it was Trump who lobbied Pence to participate in a scheme to overturn the election. When those efforts didn’t work, it was Trump, during a pre-riot rally on Jan. 6, who added unscripted comments about the then-vice president’s reluctance to show “courage.” Soon after, during the insurrectionist assault on the Capitol, the then-president had an opportunity to urge the insurrectionists to end the attack. Instead, Trump published a tweet again insisting that Pence lacked the “courage” to overturn the election, which necessarily put the Hoosier in greater danger. In the months that followed, Trump defended rioters’ “hang Mike Pence” chants, blamed Pence for the violence at the Capitol and taunted his former vice president as a “delusional” coward and a bad person. But sure, tell us another one about how Harris was a big meanie toward Pence, whose life Trump put in danger on Jan. 6.
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."
Latest Post
Recommended
