Mike Pence seems to seek redemption. He owes us more. Start by saying Trump's name. He's not Voldermort. By Hal M. Brown
NJ Today said Mike Pence eloquently carved up Trump and MAGA with the precision of a surgeon.
Evening update: In view of the interview here I have to amend everything I wrote below. He can’t redeem himself. He did not deserve the Profile in Courage Award.
Original Substack:
Here’s an excerpt:
In those comments alone, Pence reiterated that Trump lost the election, that election deniers (like the current vice president) are liars, and that Republicans who have kissed the ring must be replaced in order to “find our way forward as one nation.”
And then Pence — who sacrificed his political career by resisting Trump — stuck the knife even deeper into his former boss.
“When I think of that fateful day four years ago, the only heroes I saw were wearing uniforms,” Pence said.
Pence, in singling out the heroism of the Capitol police, refuted Trump’s insistence that the rioters and insurrectionists who tried to overthrow the election on his behalf were patriots who deserved pardons.
The Daily Beast’s take on this was not kind.
Their article (here) begins:
Former Vice President Mike Pence decided not to mention his old boss when he went to pick up a ‘courage’ award for defying him.
Pence received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at the JFK Library in Boston Sunday for his refusal to endorse false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump—which made him the No. 1 target for Trump’s supporters during the Jan. 6 riots.
The JFK Library Foundation lauded Pence for “putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021.” Despite this, Pence failed to mention Trump in his 10-minute acceptance speech.
Yesterday I wrote about how this might troll Trump into a late night rage attack against Pence and the Kennedy Library (here). You can watch the entire 50 minute ceremony here or just fast forward to Pence’s speech.
As far as I can tell Trump had no reaction to this and my hunch is that he didn’t watch it. For one thing, it wasn’t on regular TV and could only be viewed on streaming video. It’s possible segments of it will be aired on TV today.
We may never know what Pence was feeling when the following photos were taken:
Pence seemed to worship Trump like he was a deity, if not the Second Coming.
I think he should look at his receiving this award as the beginning of his redemption, but see this only as just the first step. He’s made it clear how he feels about Trump now. Treating him as a character in the Harry Potter books who don’t dare utter the name Voldemort he should emulate Harry, Ron, and Hermoine who called him by name.
This is from an article in Screen Rant:
In the books, Deathly Hallows introduced that a Taboo curse was placed on Voldemort's name. The curse made it possible for anyone who said his name to instantly be located by the Death Eaters, giving them the ability to find whoever said it.
For full redemption Pence has to explain why he was taken in by Trump, reveal how he felt and thought about Trump and what he was doing at the time, and explain how he feels about it at present. He must offer a full throated apology and not be content to bask in the afterglow of what he did on January 6th..
Update: In all fairness to Pence he did reference Trump by name, or at least the Trump Tariff, in this post on X:
This is something Trump just did. Pence must address what he did while he was at his side as a loyal and fawning sycophant.
Addendum:
Steve Schmidt wrote this before the awards ceremony. He was harder on Pence than I was. Read Mike Pence is not a 'Profile in Courage' here. He begins as follows:
“Tonight, Mike Pence will receive a ‘Profile in Courage’ award from the JFK Presidential Library. Mike Pence is many things, but a ‘profile in courage’ is not one of them.
Mike Pence is an arsonist.”
Good one. Pence is heroic in a certain sense. Lord knows what would have happened if he didn’t do what he did. He attempted to save the republic because he took his oath seriously. Meanwhile, in the Senate and the House the feckless GOP slither around, spineless and treasonously aiding and abetting the felon president.