Former Indiana governor and candidate for Republican nomination tells Fox News decision ‘should come as no surprise’
Mike Pence will not endorse for president Donald Trump, the man he served as vice-president for four years but whose supporters chanted for Pence to be hanged as they attacked Congress on January 6.
“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” the former Indiana governor and former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination told Fox News on Friday.
Asked why, given that he previously promised to endorse the eventual nominee, Pence mentioned 6 January 2021, the day a mob attacked Congress and Trump was reported to have told aides Pence “deserved” to be hanged for refusing to block certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
Only until Trump has a little talk with him.
Endorse Biden you coward. His opponent’s supporters wanted to hang you.
If he did I think he would get legit death threats, there would be a nonzero chance that his constituents would lynch him.
All the more reason to endorse a dude who isn’t leading insurrectionist terrorists.
I don’t think its biologically possible for a republicunt to endorse anyone outside the party, even in this insane political climate.
He did the ultimate limit of what they are willing to do, and I am hoping it is a wake up call to those with ears to hear.
They already tried to lynch him
Ah yes, but what about second lynching?
This is like when eary life evolved a soft-tissue that resembled a spine. It wasn’t a spine, but it resembled one.
Never thought I’d think of a “notochord” in reference to politics, but here we are.
As an aside, I love how ‘notochord’ sounds when it is pronounced. It has a good flow.
Just a big, thick, flaccid, spine-like structure?
It’s not real unless it happens to them.
His brother did…
I give it a month, two max, before his spine fails him and he endorses Trump. We’ve seen it happen many times before.
Mother said no
Or the fly.
Oh look who found their clip-on balls today
Mother gave him the keys to his ball cage
This means nothing.
I wouldn’t say that.
I mean it doesn’t mean a lot.
Though it may just be the first stitch popping, with more to come.
It is noteworthy that rarely is there ever public dissent at that level of republicunt power.
That’s true! I really meant this means nothing to his fan base. I hope it leads to more people doing the same.
I think there’s a growing number of republican politicians that are realizing they are on the wrong side of history.
Anyone still clinging to trumpty dumpty will be dragged off the wall with his fall.
The only ones who are going to make it out with a career are those who disavow early.
it looks like all these people would be ruining their whole careers by doing some of these things, I wonder if a standardly randomized IQ test and public results shoud be a thing for US public servents
Hard no. We’re not “testing” people for public office. Smells too much like testing for the vote.
We are not no, and look how well it is working. I get that doing things that is unfair is unfair but this point is to me more fair, not less.
Let’s ignore all the bias in IQ tests and how they are not a valid measure of intelligence.
This is based on the premise that these people aren’t smart. The scary thing to realize is that they are very smart people. They are using that intelligence in a concerted effort to advance their agenda and power.
The republicans don’t want to hang on your every word like they used to, mike, and even then it was not the kind of hanging you’d like.
So glad he finally grew a spine. There’s hope for paralyzed people everywhere.
It’s insane how low the bar is for Republicans to be given credit. Doing his job as VP and certifying a lawful election shouldn’t earn him any praise. Not endorsing the man who sent an angry mob to stop him from doing his job shouldn’t earn him any praise.
This is not a man who “grew a spine,” it’s a pile of wet napkins that got slightly more dry.
He should have used the 25th amendment on Trump on January 6th. His cabinet was fleeing like rats shortly afterwards, so he probably could have gotten a majority of them to sign on.
It would have saved his legacy and his party. He could have done so much good, but he chose not to.
To hell with that.
It’s only growing a spine if it risks costing you power, pence has none and is losing none. Glad he came out against the fascist, but all that might indicate is some small, at least partial return to and recognition of the rational world. He’s patting himself on the back about how virtuous this may make him seem in history, nothing more.
A sitting Republican Congressperson or party official with no intention of retiring would be demonstrating bravery coming out against the fascist.
All true. He probably feels smug about keeping his mouth shut for this long.
I hope history remembers him for continuing to orate with a fly crawling around on his face :-)
Fyi, I didn’t mean to diminish your joke, I just had a pedant moment, apologies.
LOL 😂 Nah it was great. I’m pretty sure we’re speced for serious discussions here anyway… I just don’t know how anyone 😉
Gotta make jokes. It’s either that or cry/ be paralyzed by existential dread.
Credit due for Pence consulting Dan Quayle and getting sane advice. I’m no fan, but I’ll give him that much.
“Hey man, can a VP just decide who is the next president? No? Damn, I guess I won’t, then.” So brave.
It’s only be a spine if he gets out there and basically campaigns for Biden. If he asks any remaining same conservatives to abandon the Republican party and join the Democrats, until the Republicans wither and die and the Democrats split into a sane pair of parties that can disagree but compromise like it used to be.
But he won’t do that. None of them have so far.
They only hate Trump, they love Trump’s agenda.
That’s the fucking wild part. Even the few that kind of pitched a little fit on the way stopped short of a good “Look at yourselves, look at what you’ve become!” Type thing.
I don’t know if it’s a matter of future employment prospects or if they are all really ready to embrace fascism before conceding they broke the system… but it’s sad.
Say what you will, but at the end of Trump’s presidency Pence grew a spine and told him to fuck off.
Trump was hanging onto the idea that Pence would magically solve his problem by denying the certification. Of course, Trump’s cult went to the capitol to try and hang him. I hope he endorses the other candidates, or Biden when it comes to it. It’d be a massive middle finger to the entire cult.
It sounds more like self preservation to me.
Oh please, that man still has the spine of a jellyfish.
Even after Trump tried to have him executed he was still on the air defending this trash person and his racist trash party.
This is the correct perspective. Mike Pence is a weird and cowardly shithead who decided to get off the crazy train at that stop. There were hundreds of previous stops that would have been appropriate exits. HIV enthusiast making sure people in Indiana get infected. Looks and personally of a Q-Tip.
i really respect that!
I guess that probably doesn’t come up that much, so I dunno if there’s much historical data on Presidents who run against their Vice Presidents, but I’m not sure that it’s surprising.
In the US voting system, Presidents and Vice Presidents tend not to be that similar. You tend to choose a running mate to fill in gaps in your own appeal. Pence appeals to social conservatives, which is a weak point for Trump; Trump is gonna appeal to nativists and protectionists.
We used to pick the VP from the opposing party. I’d like to see that again.
The federal government was designed to not work from day one, but they still changed that because it caused it to not work too well.
When the president controls the executive branch and his opponent controls the legislative branch, not even the important stuff gets done.
That’s not totally true. It’s just that 2nd place would become vice president.
And Thomas Jefferson was like “nah fuck that I don’t like Aaron Burr, I rape my slaves and even I think he’s shady as hell”
Doesn’t mean he won’t vote for him.
