Mike Pence thinks he lives in God’s grace. To a degree, he’s right. He’s living in something’s grace because we all still think of him as something other than a traitor! Make no mistake: Mike Pence is every bit the traitor Donald Trump is. And Donald Trump is, first and foremost a traitor. But then, if Trump’s a traitor then everyone who’s enabled his treason is also a traitor. That would mean that virtually the entire Republican Party is party to that crime.
Mike, the more you talk, the more attention you’ll draw to the facts of who you are and how you got here. Into this conversation.
GOP Mythology
The GOP’s bullshit mythology is that Pence (former US Representative from and governor of Indiana) is uber religious (and therefore authentic). He’s a boy scout – squeaky clean! But, is he?
Never mind the nonsense and bad legislation Representative and Governor Pence foisted on his constituents, Indiana and the nation. For the moment, ignore the sanctimony. Ignore that bizarre delivery the religious settle into when they “get going”. It’s all kabuki. It’s got nothing whatsoever to do with who they really are.
Pence To The Veepstakes
Question: who brought Mike Pence to the veep table back in 2016? Answer: Paul Manafort.
That’s not a small detail. It’s massive. It doesn’t speak volumes, it screams them at the top of its voice, its hair on fire.
Trump was good to go with Chris Christie before Manafort – then Trump’s campaign manager – put forward his idea: Pence. Next thing, Christie’s gone and Trump and Pence are announcing their “partnership”. The GOP mythology is that Manafort sold Trump and the GOP on how Pence’s Christian humility and piousness would balance Trump’s out-of-control wolfishness. Plus, making Trump the veep would bring the evangelicals along without having to suck their dick. They’d see themselves INSIDE the White House.
Proprietary Polling Data
But, pull back the camera and remember that Paul Manafort pleaded guilty two years later to “conspiracy against the United States” for (among other things) handing Oleg Deripaska proprietary polling data from Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The Republican Party knew Manafort when he walked in the door. He was a Nixonite, pal and partner to Roger Stone. And they knew he’d been working forever for Vladimir Putin’s various associates.
Including Oleg Deripaska.
Messing With Oleg
Deripaska is Russian military intelligence. Deripaska and Manafort both seem to agree that prior to the 2016 election, Manafort owed Deripaska around $17 million or so. Manafort offered up his Trump campaign manager position as a way to cancel his debt to a very dangerous man. The deliverables: that proprietary polling data about American voters.
What Manafort did was illegal: he went to jail for it! Now, remember: he was actively engaging in this criminal behavior at the very moment he was putting forward the name Mike Pence. Would a criminal like Paul Manafort (never mind the pardon, he was convicted) have wanted a Boy Scout as vice president?
Real Boy Scouts
A real Boy Scout – the kind who value honor and integrity – would never have associated with Paul Manafort. And Paul Manafort would never have associated with a Boy Scout because they could/would rat him out. As cynical as Manafort is, he didn’t choose Pence for his bullshit religiousity. Manafort chose Pence because he knew Pence WASN’T a Boy Scout – but was trading on people believing he was. Pence has secrets. Everyone does. But Pence’s pose a danger to him. Do I know this for certain? No. But I’ve seen Mike Pence keep terrible secrets for six years now. He made one correct decision that fell in line with the oath he took to defend the Constitution. Otherwise, Mike Pence has been every bit the criminal Trump is.
“Putin Pays Trump…”
Another quick reminder: the entire GOP leadership knew before the GOP nominated Trump that a “President Trump” would be a grave national security threat to the US. On June 25, 2016, a month before the GOP’s nominating convention, current Speaker Of The House Kevin McCarthy exited a meeting where he learned that Vlad Putin was actively trying to destroy Ukraine’s fragile, burgeoning democracy. He walked directly into a meeting of GOP leaders. The first thing McCarthy said upon entering: “There’s two people I think Putin pays – Rohrbacher and Trump – swear to God!”
No one present contradicted or questioned McCarthy. Nobody there doubted or denied him. In fact, they laughed nervously in recognition. And then Paul Ryan (at the time Speaker of the House) stepped forward. He told the room that the discussion about Trump being beholden to Russia was off the table. They were going to keep this terrible secret a secret.
But For Russia…
From We The People. It would have been nice to know during the 2016 race that Russia literally owned Trump. The GOP all knew. They didn’t want us to know.
Trump has had the GOP’s balls in his hand since the jump. Imagine the secrets Trump knows about Lindsey Graham and his peculiar sexuality. Imagine the stuff Trump knows about his old running mate Mike.
I bet it was all Trump could do to not give it up each time he got and still gets pissed at Pence. Trump’s as bad at keeping secrets as Republicans are at governing. Turns out, those things are connected. And no one epitomizes just how organic it is like Mike Pence.