Pence Tries to Have It Both Ways Regarding January 6

He says history will hold Donald Trump responsible, but he has little interest in helping history reach its conclusion.

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Former Vice President Mike Pence gives remarks at the Calvin Coolidge Foundation’s conference at the Library of Congress on February 16, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

On Saturday night, Mike Pence unleashed his anger at Donald Trump. 

“History will hold Donald Trump accountable for January 6,” Pence declared at the Gridiron Dinner, a normally jovial event for prominent journalists. “Make no mistake about it: What happened that day was a disgrace, and it mocks decency to portray it in any other way. President Trump was wrong. His reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day.”

Now, Pence is right to be angry about January 6. Trump put his exceedingly loyal vice president in a horrible position: Be faithful to the president and his base or be loyal to the Constitution and the country. 

This was, no doubt, a painful choice for Pence. And Pence did the right thing by refusing to play along with Trump’s scheme. But it’s worth remembering that Pence’s decision on January 6 was shocking to a lot of people because he spent four years being a loyal cheerleader for Trump, through the president’s countless scandals.  

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  1. Jfan

    Trump seems to have an instinct for identifying people who are weak -- who don't have the guts to stand up to him -- and hiring them, just like he has a talent for identifying women whom he can seduce. Pence showed his weakness as governor when he caved to big business over the religious freedom law. Pence always knows what the right thing is, and is too weak to do anything about it.

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    1. Kelly Windsor

      Women he can seduce?????

      Are you not aware of the extent of the women he has assaulted?

      Why is he assaulting women if he’s so great at identifying the ones who can be seduced?

      In fact, Trump has a great penchant for getting “dirt” on anyone he works, or does business, with. Perhaps Mike Pence isn’t so much “weak” as he is just another dirty politician.

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      1. Jfan

        By "seduce," I do not mean just sexually although that is a part of it. I refer to all the women who fawn over him, women whom I would otherwise view as strong, particularly conservative leaders. Jeanine Pirro, Laura Ingraham, and Elise Stefanik, for instance, debase themselves shilling for him, and while the same is true for many men, I cannot help but notice the similarity to the cliche of women swooning for a bad boy. I recall a particularly grating image Trump tweeted of himself, grinning, posing with Vicky Hartzler, who I thought was a really tough congressman who would never debase herself before anybody. Contrast this with his exchanges with Carly Fiorina, who never backed down and never kissed up to him, and against whom Trump delivered his most hateful remarks of the 2016 campaign. Trump seems to have an instinct for figuring out which women will stand up to him and which women he can get to eat out of his hand. He tries to marginalize women like Fiorina while promoting the sycophants. He does this with men, too. Recall that he toyed with appointing Mitt Romney as Secretary of State. No one thinks this was serious, but I suspect the reason Trump was not serious is that he sensed that Romney had a real backbone and would stand up to him, whereas Pence, who appeared to have stronger moral convictions than Romney -- I think this is genuine -- lacked the strength of character to challenge him.

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        1. Kelly Windsor

          I see what you’re saying.
          Yet he DOES coerce and attack also.

          I have wondered how any woman has allowed him to touch her…

          Or how any man ever believed a word he says…

          But I’ve read several books about him. Usually it’s like propaganda. They see what they want to see. He knows how to mirror what someone wants to see.
          And, if that doesn’t work he assaults and/or coerces. And makes everyone sign an NDA..

          Ick.

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    BrettH

    Pence won’t survive the primary. It will be much deserved for his strategic cowardice as Trump’s VP.

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  3. Edward Grant

    There’s one explanation JG does not consider: legal advice Pence may be getting. Trump is under investigation for Jan 6-related matters, and could be indicted. Maybe not likely. But far from impossible. Given that possibility, a smart attorney would counsel him to be cautious and invoke any privilege to which he is plausibly entitled. The Jan 6 Committee was beset by political grandstanding, and Pence wisely avoided being subject to its show trial tactics. The DOJ investigation is far more serious, but so are the issues of both executive privilege and separation of powers that he claims. As JG notes, this may all look bad from a political standpoint. But when prosecutors are sticking their nose inside your tent, you are entitled to play defense.

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    1. Clarity

      Unfortunately, Pence is not plausibly entitled to any protection under the speech and debate clause of the Constitution. That clause certainly doesn't protect Pence from answering the vast majority of the questions the Special Counsel will ask him.

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    2. Steffent01850

      Show trial tactics is a bit of a stretch. And by "a bit", I mean an enormous stretch. It was certainly political but McCarthy sending fundamentally unserious people to be on the committee to try and sabotage it and make a joke of something deadly serious led to it being much more partisan and political then it would have been had they taken it seriously.

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      1. Edward Grant

        They literally hired television producers to showrun their prime time hearings. That meets my definition of “show trial,” c. 2022.

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    Donald E. L. Johnson, Florida

    I'm getting the feeling that Mitt Romney really would like to run for president because he doesn't like or trust Trump nor DeSantis.

    While Romney's speeches, comments and tweets look like a strong blogger is writing Romney's speeches and tweets, it doesn't look like he is building a campaign staff or raising funds for presidential campaign. And he's in his mid 70s.

    Although Senator Romney has proved to be a less than brilliant campaigner, I'd jump on his bandwagon in a flash.

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    Earl King

    All this is the conundrum of a central philosophical question. Is it moral to work for an ill moral man by hoping you can make him better.

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    1. Jfan

      It's not so immoral at first. After six years of not just no results but no real effort, this looks ridiculous.

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    2. Jcambro

      He didn’t just work for him. He enabled him. Raised him up and praised him. Gave him credit for things he didn’t accomplish and shielded him from culpability for his abuses.

      Leaders set an example. When Mike Pence had opportunity after opportunity to stand up for what’s right - when he was needed most- he hid, paid lip service, prevaricated and made excuses.

      If Republican voters could take honest measure of Mike Pence, they’d see a man who put power and ambition above country and God. Only at one minute to midnight at the last moment of Trump’s disgraceful Presidency, did Pence manage to dig deep enough to figure out how to do the right thing.

      He’s got plenty of company in a party of men who just couldn’t locate their spines when their country needed them.

      Pence is reportedly a devout Christian. We all have our sins to answer for - but Mike Pence’s judgment day might be a rough one. Even now, he persists in his false witness.

      Don’t let his civil demeanor fool you. He didn’t protect his country from Trump - He was his craven accomplice.

      Other than that, I’m sure he’s a real nice fella.

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        Earl King

        So I’m not an apologist for Pence....this is more of beware of what you ask for. Let’s say Pence quits. Does what a few others did. Do you want Mike Lindell as VP? An interim VP of questionable knowledge and perhaps more of a sycophant? Some of these people claim they stayed out of patriotism.

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        1. Jcambro

          A very valid point. Were guys with real credibility pre-Trump, really protecting us from his most reckless tendencies? There are stories from memoirs by Kelly, Barr and Bolton to suggest that. But Pence, unlike an appointed cabinet member or White House staff, is a politician- running a campaign, making public pronouncements and so forth. That in part, leads me to greatly lose respect for him - His willingness not to protect us from Trump, but to promote Trump.

          But I take your point - Maybe Pence was both gasbag AND airbag?

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            Earl King

            It is very difficult to decide on whether he was protecting us or giving left to Trump’s behavior. I think I’d rather have competent people in place rather than boot lickers who know nothing.....So I will pretend it was with honest feeling that it was better than Trump replacement.
            That said, Pence carried a lot of water for Trump.
            Biden says as many lies as Trump did. He is mendacious and in some respects hyper partisan. I won’t even forget his telling black voters that Romney wanted to put them back in chains....That to me makes him anti American...lying solely to gain power is one of my greatest tests of character and he failed. He continues to say things that divide us. I don’t like when Republicans lie....and surely don’t like it when Democrats do it. Asking me whether Trump is worse than Biden....I end up saying they are both horrid.

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      This comment has been deleted

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    Soniak21

    I've had trouble articulating what I think about Pence and what he's really up to all those times when he tiptoes right up to the line of condemning Trump but goes no further. But I think I've finally nailed it down.

    Pence is a devout Christian who joined forces with one of the least "Christian" men on earth because he told himself it was for the greater good. If being Trump's VP made him a leading figure in the party—and hopefully the next president—he'd gain a massive platform to do good and Christian things in the world, even if it meant throwing in with an unsavory character. (This is what I think he told himself.)

    But if he breaks from Trump now, and that ends his political viability (however much he thinks he has)—that means it was all for nothing. He compromised his values for Trump, and then never even gained that big beautiful platform for values and conservatism and Christianity (and, well, power). It's all sunk costs now. He can't change course and go back to being the kind of conservative Christian who would've condemned all things Trumpish. He has no choice but to grimly push on with Plan A.

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      Donald E. L. Johnson, Florida

      As a communicator of his faith's values and strengths, I think Romney beats Pence and DeSantis . We don't need a poll to prove that.

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        Soniak21

        Totally agree. I'm proud to have voted for him for president. It's a shame about the image he had back then, which was: rich generic "haircut" Republican politician who was a little too "RINO" for conservatives and a little too patrician for populists and (sadly) a little too Mormon for a lot of people. And that's just what the Republicans thought of him. For Dems he was "out-of-touch, privileged, quasi-evil white man with a dog strapped to his car roof and 'binders full of women.'"

        It's too bad it's taken this crappy turn in GOP politics to reveal that he actually has character.

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          Donald E. L. Johnson, Florida

          You nailed it. Thanks.

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  7. James Morphew

    I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I have always liked Pence, I was glad he followed the rules on Jan 6, and I am pleased with his recent pronouncement as accurate yet not aggressive. If he declines to join Jonah in the political Trump bashing, I have no problem with that, either. This may bar me from The Dispatch coffee clatch, but that's ok, too. I have no interest in lynch mobs, even editorial ones.

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    1. Maria.Francesca

      Plenty of people on Jan 6 had an interest in lynch mobs, shouting "Hang Mike Pence" and tying nooses. While Trump watched it all on TV and did nothing for hours. But Pence wants to be outraged and do nothing of substance with his outrage. Not a good look.

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    2. Hikingguy

      Trump plotted to overthrow an election. He richly deserves any bashing he may receive-especially since he, personally, has embraced bashing as his mode of being. Lynch mobs? Nah. A fair trial, followed by a lengthy prison term would do just fine.

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    The Bell Tower

    “But taken together, he’s basically trying to be the Schrödinger’s cat of vice presidents.”

    Ha ha ha ha. This is vintage Goldberg. Awesome.

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    1. Kgfroehle

      Don't open the box!

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        The Bell Tower

        What’s in the boooox!?!

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  9. David Schmidt

    So far it feels like every single Republican who has either announced intentions to run for president or has hinted the same, is so caught up in attracting MAGA votes that they seem to forget that the actual majority of Republican voters are a coalition of normie Republicans, anti-Trump Republicans, Independents, and blue collar non-college educated Democrats.

    None of them apparently believes that being a good steward of the Constitution, an advocate for small government, a proponent of fiscal responsibility or a strong national defense will cut it anymore. They may be right. But the end result will mean the party will continue to weaken and primarily cater to a minority coalition that cannot compete for victory on the national level.

    Perhaps the goal of the party is simply to make money off of election denial and Tucker Carlson. Seems the epitome of Bush League.

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  10. Trichwages

    Bravo.

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