An American Haunting

The specter of Mike Pence looms as Donald Trump's party welcomes his new running mate

Former vice president Mike Pence speaks at an event at the University of Texas, El Paso. (Graphic Tom LoBianco/24sight News.)

Donald Trump may not have intended for his January 6th, 2021 tweet against Mike Pence to actually endanger his former ally and loyal second-in-command’s life. But astute observers of GOP politics have said it did seem uniquely designed to kill the career of someone who could have been one of his most serious challengers in a return to power four years later. 

And it worked. 

Cast out by Trump and his loyalists, the former vice president and one-time darling of the party of Ronald Reagan was nowhere to be found this week in Milwaukee as Trump named his new number 2.

But his presence still permeated the convention dedicated to Trump’s remaking of the party. 

Trump’s campaign even boosted Pence, likely unintentionally, in the series finale of “Veepstakes”. By sketching in Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance’s name on the old campaign signs, they resurrected Pence’s name again and again and again. 

The one person who would never again be Trump’s running mate got a free ride on the rollout of the newcomer designed to erase him and his brand of Reagan-era Republican politics. 

“Pence remains a presence even in the midst of the moral relativism in the GOP because he represents immutable American values,” said Mike Murphy, a veteran Indiana Republican and Pence supporter, Tuesday evening. “As was said about Barry Goldwater 60 years ago, ‘In your heart, you know he’s right.” 

2016

Pence was always something of an apparition by Trump’s side, dating back to their auspicious start when the then-Indiana governor secured his place on the original ticket. 

Trump introduced the world to his running mate at a half-hour press conference dominated by Trump rambling and Pence smiling and nodding. Hardly anyone paid attention to Pence’s acceptance speech the Wednesday of the 2016 convention, because the highlight of the night was vanquished presidential primary rival Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas  telling delegates not to support Trump, and Trump fighting back by walking into the convention hall and whipping his supporters into a frenzy.

The future vice president’s acceptance speech barely registered. 

And that carried through their time in office together. Pence developed a public image as a comically obsequious enabler of Trump — touting Trump’s “broad-shouldered leadership” in public, even as he allegedly attempted to put up guardrails around Trump inside the White House. 

The sternly earnest son of Columbus, Indiana would rather wear a forced smile in public than give away when he disagreed with Trump. 

But pushed to his limit after their joint loss in the 2020 election, Pence wrote his divorce from Trump in a letter issued at 1 p.m. on January 6th, 2021, written with an eye toward setting precedent and cementing the history of the moment. 

After rebuffing relentless bullying from Trump and MAGA supporters pushing him to swap in “fake electors” willing to overturn the 2020 election, Pence wrote that it is entirely un-American for one person to decide an election, anathema to the designs of the Founding Fathers.

“Vesting the Vice President with unilateral authority to decide presidential contests would be entirely antithetical to that design,” Pence wrote.

It ended Pence’s hopes of ever winning the White House. But the former rising star of the party stuck around anyway — showing up every now and then at inopportune times for the unforgiving Trump. 

Pence’s role in stopping the January 6th insurrection and the help he provided congressional and federal investigators who dug into Trump’s attempted election interference kept him in the news for years with minimal effort. 

The highly cloistered politician famous for revealing little in public didn’t have to say much to garner headlines.

Even after getting crushed by Trump in a longshot Republican presidential primary bid last year, Pence kept at it. The week before the convention started, as Trump and his team fought to strike anti-abortion language from the party’s official platform, Pence and his political operation fought to keep pro-life language in.

Cleanup

Vance helped secure his place at Trump’s side in part with his fierce defense of Trump on television — a job which used to fall to Pence. He said that, if he had been vice president on January 6th, he would not have certified the results of the election (something which would have plunged the country into a Constitutional crisis sought by  the architects of the January 6th attack, like John Eastman.)

Pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in May about his support for the January 6th defendants, Vance said it wasn’t that bad. 

“I’m truly skeptical that Mike Pence’s life was ever in danger,” Vance said.

Some Pence loyalists dotted the convention in Milwaukee this week, including Pence’s longtime political consigliere, Marc Short. But plenty stayed away from the celebration of Trump.

Meanwhile, Pence — known for his very clean, but also dry, Irish wit — got in some ace trolling, tweeting a photo from rural Montana of him and former second lady Karen Pence riding horses together and fly-fishing.

The absurdity of Pence riding horses out in the wild while his old party colleagues lined up behind Trump garnered yet another flash of attention for the man deemed dead.