Mike Pence, the former vice president of the United States with Donald Trump, has avoided strongly criticizing his boss since both left the White House in January 2021. This Wednesday, in the announcement of his candidacy the US presidency had no other choice: Trump is the opponent to beat and Pence needs to explain why, after four years of working with him and two presidential campaigns under his wing – one victorious, the other not – he now seeks to take him down.
Pence’s justification has a date: January 6, 2021, a black day in US history, the day of embarrassing and tragic assault on the Capitol by a ‘Trumpist’ mob. That day, the objective was to avoid the certification in Congress of Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate, as the winner of the presidential elections. Trump maintained and maintains – without support from the courts or from his own party – that they robbed him at the polls. He was demanding that Pence, in his capacity as president of the Senate, derail certification. Pence refused to pressure him and became a direct enemy of Trump. The president accused him of not having “courage.” The capitol raiders were screaming ‘Hang Mike Pence!’. Today a good part of ‘Trumpism’ continues to consider him a traitor.
“The president’s words were reckless and endangered my family and everyone on Capitol Hill,” Pence said of that day, in a criticism that is not new. “But The American people deserve to know that that day President Trump demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution.», he added. “Now voters face the same choice. I chose the Constitution and always will.”
It remains to be seen if this fundamental break between Pence and Trump on June 6 will be enough to save the contradiction in which the former vice president’s campaign will live for the next few months: going after Trump after having been his loyal squire for four years.
In your campaign ad, aired just hours before Pence gave his speech, the candidate makes no mention of Trump. You don’t even see a picture of the former president. Pence does remember that he became vice president, but little else. The only veiled mention of Trump is towards the end of the video: “Other times require other leaders.”
Pence will have the difficult task of keeping only the good of his time in the White House. In introducing him as a candidate, from Iowa, the first state to vote in primaries, he boasted of the achievements “of the Trump-Pence Administration.” He mentioned the tax reform, the operations against Daesh or the conservative turn of the Supreme Court. “I’m incredibly proud of what we accomplished for the American people,” he said.
His offer to the Republicans
The offer he brings to the Republicans is simple: all the good things about Trump, but without all the bad things about Trump. That is to say, his political, social and economic agenda, but without the turmoil, exacerbated by his attempt to reverse the results.
Pence presented himself as a conventional Republican – nothing is further from Trump -, related to Ronald Reagan: social conservatism, patriotism, military impulse and liberal economic agenda.
Perhaps more than anyone in these already crowded primaries, Pence offers the clearest vision on social issues. He criticized Trump for “backing down” on the abortion cause. Trump has complained that last year’s Supreme Court ruling, which ended constitutional protections for abortion, hurt him in last year’s midterm elections. Pence, however, does not give an inch: “I will not stop until we return the sanctity of life to the American heartland.”said Pence, who repeats his motto ad nauseam: “I am a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order.”
Pence, in any case, have the race uphill. He trails far behind Trump in the polls. The former president’s important base will never forgive him for his betrayal. His social talk could scare off some moderates and independents. And, in general, it provokes little enthusiasm, one of the worst things that can happen to a candidate.
