Pence Says Trump Shouldn’t Be Disqualified Even If CONVICTED — Says ‘That Needs To Be Left To The American People’
Pence Says Trump Shouldn’t Be Disqualified Even If CONVICTED — Says ‘That Needs To Be Left To The American People’
Ex-VP Mike Pence said he wouldn't support disqualifying Trump even if he's convicted of crimes — saying "the American people" should decide.
He. Tried. To. Kill. You.
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The fear of the Cheeto Pudding among GOP contenders is almost funny. But not really.
Their complacency and servitude is bizarre. I struggle to believe they'd just publicly demean themselves over and over again without being blackmailed or threatened but it looks like humiliation rolls off them like water from a ducks back.
It might be funny but it also makes perfect sense.
Trump is the defacto face of the party now, win or lose, so anyone who wants to take his place on the ballot in 24 has to walk the impossible tightrope of being different enough from him to get moderate Republicans to vote for them in the primary, while also being enough like him to somehow get loyal trump voters to vote for them instead of him.
It can't be done.
It'd be very different if Trump were out of the picture (not running, term limited, convicted and in prison for insurrection, or dead) and the primary field didn't include the OG responsible for the way the party looks and acts now.
In that scenario, you have a field not including trump, with everyone trying their own blend of trump republicanism, traditional conservatism, and whatever else made them unique in the field. But instead, as long as he's in the discussion, they have to somehow be more popular than the party figurehead, and find ways to be different from him while not criticizing anything he says or does, or risk immediately setting his entire base against them.
Thanks, great insight. Does getting the VP nomination also factor in to the play, or are they under the assumption the indictments will prevent a second term?
Who's to say, but if I had to guess? Neither.
If anything, I'd bet their game is a longer view: how to take advantage of another possible trump presidency, balanced against positioning to take advantage of the fallout of another trump loss...with another possible scenario being that another candidate somehow manages to win the primary, in which case the trump loyalists won't control the party and it'll be advantageous to not look too trumpy in that case, just trumpy enough to maintain appearances as a proud and loyal republican.
It's a tightrope I'm glad I don't have to negotiate.