Hero?
The media is tripping all over themselves calling Pence a hero because he did his job under great pressure from his boss and the people around him.
You know what? That’s caca del toro.
Okay, how is that any difference than a teenager working at McDonalds working in the hot kitchen with his boss screaming at him about making burgers faster, even if it means not putting a pickle on it and the kid decided that if people pay for a pickle, they ought to get a damn pickle.
Is that kid a hero? Nope, he’s just doing his job.
I know doing your job is unexpected in Trumpculture. But that’s all Pence did. He’s not a hero. He’s just a guy who went to work and did his job. And the deal about not getting into the car to leave the capitol? That’s not hero. I also wouldn’t get into a car with an armed man I didn’t know.
The cops who charged the crowd or lead them astray are far closer to heroes than Mike Damn Pence.
For four damn years, Pence stood beside Trump nodding his goofy head up and down. He knew Trump was totally insane but Pence just stood there, nodding.
Hero? My patooie.
Totally agree! Lawrence O’Donnell made that point very emphatically last night on MSNBC. Yes, we’re grateful Pence stood up at the end, but he did everything he could to find a way to do what Trump wanted. Could’ve shut it down way sooner, and saved some lives.
1Should we send him ‘thoughts and prayers’?
2Agree with what has been said here. I also believe he saw an opening to separate himself from trumpf with the full intention of a 2024 run of his own. I for one would be sick if he were elected president. You could be sure his first focus would be to try and put the final stake in the separation of church and state. Among other things.
3Pence a hero? In a drought, even one drop of water feels like an oasis, apparently.
Compare that to a real leader, from 6-16-22:
“Jimmy Carter got on our plane and was seated in first-class. Got up before the plane left and shook every single hand on the plane and thanked everybody. The plane erupted in Applause and tears it was awesome”
https://twitter.com/45needstogo1/status/1537658419921969153
4Deb B. in Alabama @2, Here you go Deb, just $21 a bag:
https://images.dailykos.com/images/939417/story_image/thoughts_prayers.png
.
On the attempted coup d’état, there’s been a lot of mentions of the traitorous participants requesting “presidential pardons”.
But no evidence of them.
So what would be the only, and best, way to find out about these alleged pardons?
Why of course, swiftly INDICT AND CHARGE THESE SOBs with the appropriate criminal offenses and watch and see which ones whip out their ill-gotten worthless trumpian pardon papers.
After all, a pardon is useless, and can remain hidden, until it is actually needed.
So, does Merrick Garland have the stones to bring a box of hammers down on these traitors heads?
5I agree. He did the right thing – when did that become newsworthy? Also, all those lawyers, dozens it seems, knew what was going on and didn’t say anything? Those are the folks who are real scum!
6I agree with you, mostly, JJ; however, the only reason we are still here able to speak our minds and vote for whomever we want is because Pence did his job–along with a slew of local and state officials who also would not be bullied. Pence’s insistence on remaining on the Capitol grounds ensured that he would be able to continue to do his duty. I can’t fault him for that. I can fault him for a lot of other stuff, but not that.
When you see how fast the Congressional Rethugs caved, Pence looks almost “heroic” next to them. His political career is over–whether he realizes it or not. Of course, it was already over for him before the Orange Moron tapped him to be the VP.
7Apparently there were people within 40 feet of where Pence’s car was waiting screaming about hanging Pence. Pence showed bravery by refusing to get into the car (the Trump Secret Service folks would not have brought him back after things ended).
He also showed bravery by doing his job despite the threats.
Not sure if this makes him a hero, but it does deserve the thanks of a grateful nation.
P.S.: He’s still a jerk, though.
8I agree with JJ. Pence even called Dan Quayle, of all people, looking for “permission” to go along with 45. Quayle told him it was a stupid idea.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/14/politics/dan-quayle-pence-trump-january-6-woodward-costa-book/index.html
If Pence had been a true muensch, he would have gone to the press.
9I hope those media people heaping praise on a guy for doing his job question what took the rest so long to speak up. Had Pence and his aides done their jobs a couple months earlier perhaps 1-6 would never have happened. Lawrence O Donnell asked that yesterday. I wonder, too.
10@Malarkey: I wish he would talk to the 1/6 Commission.
11I can’t call him a hero, but I’m extremely grateful that he got the contacts he needed to provide him the much needed backbone on the day.
Being heroic–that would have been standing up to Trump at the first infraction…so 2016?
Some of the best fiction is the alternate history angles. Some of the most terrifying reality (and I thought watching the coup happen was terrifying enough) is realizing the alternate history.
Yes, there would have been absolute chaos if Pence had overturn the election. But, what if the Proud Boys had managed to capture Pence and Pelosi as planned and killed them? What would have happened? 1) There would have been probably no way to fulfill the certifying of the electoral votes that day. 2) Trump would have been able to enact the marshal law he was foaming at the mouth to do. 3) Trump could have immediately (emergency need) appointed one of his goons–like Guiliani to be the acting VP. 4) More reason to obstruct the transfer of power. And there would easily be a dozen other consequences from just those two acts by the jerks.
So I am very thankful that Pence chose that day to have a backbone.
12Mike Pence had two jobs.
Break ties in the senate. And become president if tfg literally combusted from all the lies and grifting.
In gop land a hero ain’t nothing but a sandwich.
13Agree 100%! (Although maybe would prefer better analogy)
14Pence pursued every opportunity to not do his job before he did it. He did not speak out before and has barely mumbled his disagreement over be pressured to commit a crime since.
I need to weigh in on this one. I’ve known Mike Pence since 1980,when we both were Republican candidates for Congress (and both lost.) Mike is despicable, true, but basically very stupid. (Not sure he passed the bar, and in law school, his nickname was “Dense Pence.”
I am grateful he didn’t fold under pressure, and I think the January 6th committee was brilliant making him a hero–now the Evangelicals need to decide which of these poor excuses for humans they believe.
The most astute observation of Pence’s “heroism” came from a friend who said “Pence did what he has always done: nothing.” His point–with which I totally agree–is that Pence rarely if ever did shit. When he was Governor, he did nothing (except hold unconstitutional prayer meetings in the Governor’s office). He has always been timid, has never shown any indication of leadership–never DONE anything. When pressed by Trump et al, he reverted to his comfort zone of DO NOTHING.
The irony is that being called out for “heroism” will destroy him with the MAGA crowd…so fitting!
15PS I “came out” as Democrat in 2000. Just in case I left the wrong impression…..
16There’s a wonderful article in today’s Guardian at
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/17/did-good-republicans-save-us-from-the-bad-ones-on-january-6-i-dont-buy-it
I’ll paste in the last bit here:
A person of conscience and integrity would never have found himself in the position that Mike Pence was in on January 6. A man with courage would have stood up to Trump sooner; a man of moral commitment would never have worked for him in the first place. Still, the committee’s argument that Pence did something honorable when he refused to carry through the illegal plan put forth by Eastman might carry some weight, in the sense that Pence was under enormous, life-threatening pressure to do the wrong thing, and he did not. But perhaps this is the real indictment of the American system of government: if we were a functioning democracy, the rule of law wouldn’t be dependent on something so flimsy as Mike Pence’s honor.
But as a symbol for a good Republican, Pence hardly seems to fit the image of uprightness and dignity that the committee is trying to assign him. The members of the January 6 committee clearly want to address these “good” Republicans, to show them that their party need not be defined by Trump, to bring them back to the light. But the people they are talking to don’t exist anymore.
17Texas Expat, this article was right on, especially “But the people they are talking to don’t exist anymore.” If there were “good Republicans” in the administration during the months after the election was called, including Pence, they should have used the 25th amendment to rid the country of the tyrant president. And they could have/should have used it after Jan 6. The information coming out in the current hearings clarified how unfit trumpf was to be in office and they knew it. So Pence and the rest are complicit in everything that has happened and continues to happen. There may be some good Republicans, but if they exist, most are not coming forward and if they do, are not being heard by the party.
18Enough adulation of Pence, especially from Democrats! If he wants to put together a presidential campaign, let him do it himself, without our help.
Speaking of Republican campaigns: Everybody catch Peggy Noonan’s trashing of Trump, available on the Drudge Report, today. Savage take-down sentence: “…he’s colorfully masculine, yet not at all manly—a screaming meemie instead of a steady bomber pilot.” OUCH!
19I’m overjoyed Pence did the right thing at that time. It took guts and determination. But I’d still never vote for him for any public office because of his policies and his idea that religion belongs in government.
20After reading all these responses to JJ’s original comments, she pretty much nailed it at the start.
21I just remember how he refused to shut up when his time was up during the debate with Kamala Harris and did his pompous man splaning thing.
22Unlike Mike Pence, this is worth reading and admiring:
https://www.rawstory.com/michael-luttig-2657530123/
We need more like him.
23Exactly.
24And for somebody always yammering about what a Christian he is, Pence should have known there is no spoon long enough for safe supping with the Devil.
In the oilfield there is a saying “one ‘Oh Shit!’ cancels all your ‘attaboys'” But for pence it does not work the other way. One ‘attaboy’ does not cancel all your ‘Oh Shits!’
25One small correction: Trump was not Pence’s boss. We the people are the boss of both of them.
26