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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDavid Frum: Mike Pence Failed in His Most Important Duty
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/mike-pences-role-ukraine-scandal-disgraceful/599449/Mike Pence Failed in His Most Important Duty
The vice president is supposed to be prepared to step into the nations highest office if necessary.
11:03 AM ET
David Frum
snip//
At a press conference at the United Nations on September 25, Trump delivered a warning message. The word is, theyre going to ask for the first phone conversation. You can have it any time you need it. And also Mike Pences conversations, which were, I think, one or two of them. They were perfect. They were all perfect.
Indeed, Pence seems to have been involved up to the eyeballs in the Ukraine plot. His teams messagingYes, he pressed the Ukrainians to investigate corruption, but he never appreciated that Trumps true purpose was to pursue the Bidensfails the laugh test. Pences taint presents a political problem for him, but raises a much graver question for the country. If the Senate ever could muster the integrity to remove Trump from office, there would be no Ford to put in his place, only a vice president who participated in Trumps dirty schemes, from staying at a remote resort to direct government funds to Trumps failing Irish golf course to extorting an invaded country to fabricate political dirt to help Trumps reelection.
Trumps compromised attorney general remains on the job, as does his apparently compromised secretary of state. As the text messages from Gordon Sondland, Trumps ambassador to the European Union, confirm, the corruption permeates Trumps second- and third-level appointments, too.
Not only is this scandal worse than Watergatethe break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices did not betray the national-security interests of the United Statesbut the outlook for the country is worse, too. There is no easy exit from the scandal by removing the president. Nixons party broke with him after the release of the smoking gun tape in August 1974 removed any possibility of honest belief in Nixons innocence. Trumps guilt has now passed that pointand Trumps party protects him anyway.
The political scientists can explain the structural reasons why the Republican Party has submitted to Trump, but structures are inhabited by people who make moral choices. The country needed Pence to keep himself clean, as Ford did, and insteadwhether out of raw ambition or some weak personal impulse to subserviencePence plunged into the deepest ooze of the mud. Maybe he struggled to keep his distance, maybe he obeyed only reluctantly, or maybe he eagerly volunteered to ingratiate himself with his crooked boss. That part of the story will all come out.
For now, all we need to say is that Pence betrayed his most important duty as vice president: Be ready to step into the nations highest office should the need arise. Hes as much a part of the problem as Trump is, and Pences personal choices ensure that the scandal of the century will continue to rip apart U.S. politics even if the impeachment process somehow succeeds.
OnDoutside
(19,974 posts)ffr
(22,672 posts)Pence is unfit for any office, let alone #2
It's a cabal of criminals. Only a few are resigning, but it's only a matter of time
Bob Loblaw
(1,900 posts)jayschool2013
(2,313 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)between parties to remove Trump in the nation's best interests unlikely. My auto-take anyway.
Given Pence's complicity in the crimes Trump would be removed for, even if McConnell were willing, how could Democrats agree to allow him to fulfill Trump's last year? And would anything short of dire scandal threatening McConnell himself cause him to agree to a President Pelosi?
Mr.Bill
(24,330 posts)it will probably be only a few months left of Trump's term. Timing is everything, and right now Pelosi is in 100% control of the timing.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Although our Dem leaders are saying they'd like to submit to the senate this year so what our candidates offer can be the focus in 2020. Whatever, they have plans.
geardaddy
(24,931 posts)as one of Stephanie Miller's mooks says.
erronis
(15,355 posts)Since there is no color whatsoever in his outward persona.
I'll bet $1,000 that his insides are shit-colored.
calimary
(81,508 posts)Probably will use him up and throw him out, if the pattern holds.
geardaddy
(24,931 posts)He is colorless on the outside.
LiberalLovinLug
(14,176 posts)A smart mob boss would have his second in command be squeeky clean for the sake of 'the family' surviving. But then Trump never did care about the Republican family or any family, only himself.
But Pence, or his advisors, should have insisted he remain at arms length to the President and his actions.
But I also think Pence is a weakling. Between 'mother' and his daddy Donnie, he's thoroughly a kept man. I'm sure he was picked because of his docility. And Trump is a predator. He has no loyalty to Pence either. He uses people and throws them away. So Pence would have perhaps had in mind to keep a distance, but, as a weakling, he couldn't withstand the constant pressure from his boss to help him hold power. I've never seen a man with such a guilty expression permanently pasted onto his face.
SergeStorms
(19,204 posts)The republicans are the party of cheating, lying, political dishonesty, and should never again be entrusted by the American people with any claim to governance. The republican party should forevermore be considered dead.
spooky3
(34,483 posts)AND Trump, and remove them.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)spooky3
(34,483 posts)Action he should have considered in his article. The alternatives are not simply to leave Trump in office, or to have to accept a dirtied Pence.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)I guess, but he's conservative, and pointing out Pence's betrayal of his duty to be an honorable successor is worth an article on its own even to me, so no doubt especially to conservatives.
Especially millions of worried conservatives who must have comforted themselves that at least they had Pence if everything went bad.
George II
(67,782 posts)TrogL
(32,822 posts)robbob
(3,538 posts)I believe he was Vice President when Watergate began? I think Ford was brought in for one reason only; to grant Nixon a pardon as soon as he resigned.
Hekate
(90,829 posts)..when Nixon was gotten rid of. And Ford had to be clean (he was). First things first. However the pardon of Nixon came about, both Agnew and Nixon had to go first.
That was my point; Ford was the clean vp because they needed to get rid of Agnew and pardon Nixon. So, by the op article mentioned, Pence has to go and be replaced by a clean vp, but unfortunately (for tRump), he has so many crimes on record that no amount of pardons is going to get him off the hook...
Response to babylonsister (Original post)
yonder This message was self-deleted by its author.
Hamlette
(15,412 posts)Hekate
(90,829 posts)babylonsister
(171,094 posts)calimary
(81,508 posts)They might calculate that the evangelical community would be as solid for Mr. My Religion Beats Your Rights as the racists, gun nuts, and other haters have been for trump.
And he has that nice clean white facade of Americas Heartland. And hes probably not inclined to stink up the joint in real time and try to dominate all the headlines. He doesnt strike me as an attention whore like trump is. Hes a phony-baloney holier-than-thou. Who doesnt practice what he tries to jam down the throats of the rest of us. Hed be the fundamentalists dream candidate. Theyd have his back like crazy.
Hekate
(90,829 posts)Nitram
(22,892 posts)Trump be removed from office.