Pence Should Risk His Political Future and Do the Right Thing | RealClearPolitics

Vice President Mike Pence has weeks left to resolve the second most difficult dilemma of his career. The first one was decided in favor of Donald Trump and a future in politics, when in 2016 he chose to continue backing Trump after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape that sent both Pence and his wife reeling. The second one will arrive on Jan. 6 when Pence presides in Congress as it certifies the slates of electors from all 50 states and a group of Republicans attempts to reject some of them. Doing his duty as president of the U.S. Senate, and acknowledging Joe Biden’s victory, could cause Pence irreparable harm with many GOP voters.

While he seems unlikely to prevail, Pence has plans for a presidential campaign in 2024, and respecting the democratic process could end his chances at the job he hoped he was well positioned for as VP. Trump’s new litmus test demands that loyal Republicans maintain the election was “stolen” from him. You are either with him or against him — just ask Govs. Brian Kemp and Doug Ducey, whom Trump is attacking because they wouldn’t break the law for him. 

As the Electoral College certified slates of electors across the nation Monday, making Biden the winner by a 306-232 tally, Trump is now turning to the Jan. 6 date as his final opportunity to overturn a free and fair election he lost. Congressional Republicans, led by Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, will try to get Congress to reject enough electoral votes in swing states to block Biden’s win. 

The stunt will fail — objections to any state’s electors already certified without dispute are simply a statement of protest. The law requires the signature of at least one senator, and though none has stepped up so far, Rand Paul and Ron Johnson sound warm to the plan. But the actual move to throw electors out would have to be approved by both chambers in Congress. While Republicans could still retain the majority in the Senate following two runoff elections in Georgia the day before, the House will be controlled by Democrats and the gambit will fail there. Still, the theater of the day is likely to be fraught and furious, with Trump denouncing any dissenters and lauding those who fight for him. Most importantly, it will be the final Trump show of his presidency, a made-for-television event he knows the world will be watching. Optics, to Trump, are just as important — and often more so — than an outcome. 

It matters not that the battle will be lost, just that it will be fought. Trump is well aware his cases in court were public-relations gambits, without evidence of any widespread fraud and often even without allegations, and that there aren’t any avenues remaining for stalling the inevitable. But fighting is paramount; what he fights is secondary. Everyone is expected to fight alongside him, even with all options exhausted.

On Monday, Trump and Pence had lunch together in the private dining room at the White House, where the vice president surely enjoyed numerous mouthfuls of grievance and grump and garbage about Biden losing the election, the betrayal of GOP officials doing their job, “massive fraud” and the failure of a Supreme Court Trump thought was on his payroll to do its job and help re-elect him. Pence doesn’t need any explicit encouragement or threats from Trump to know just what will be expected of him on Jan. 6 in the Senate chamber. 

Pence is also keenly aware of what millions of Trump voters expect as well. He knows they have been deceived by the president and his congressional and media allies and that they are enraged. The mere act of Pence announcing that Joe Biden won 306 electoral votes and will be the 46th president, let alone congratulating him or wishing him God’s blessings, could be an unforgivable sin to the faithful flock who have bought Trump’s fraud fiction. Voters have become increasingly radicalized by Trump’s lies, urgent pleas for donations they receive by text and the delusional claims his associates continue to spread about the election. They are turning on the party itself, as witnessed by chants of “Destroy the GOP” at protests this past weekend, and want retribution against anyone — like Ducey and Kemp — who refused Trump’s demands to overturn the results in their states. No Republican office holder can have any confidence they know where this is headed. 

Since Nov. 3 Pence has not given fiery speeches or interviews screeching about a stolen election. He has tried instead sticking with neutral language — “we are going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted and until every illegal vote is thrown out.” He’s not hiding out entirely. Pence has eagerly campaigned for GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in their Georgia runoff races because he wants to help out Republicans he hopes will help him out if he launches a White House run.

But for his touting of vaccines on Twitter, Pence has visibly avoided his role as head of the coronavirus task force since Election Day and left critical messaging about the coming explosion of infections and deaths this winter to public health officials. Because Trump doesn’t like any mention of the virus, Pence won’t say any of the things he should be saying about the pandemic, which has now killed 300,000 Americans and is expected to take an average of 2,000-3,000 lives each day for months to come. The vice president is likely counting the hours until he is no longer accountable for an effort Trump tasked him to lead but doomed to failure.

Pence is a devout man whose son is a Marine. He was, during his entire Dudley Do-Right career, the last man official Washington could imagine stomaching Trump as a candidate, let alone spending four years abandoning his integrity to hold Trump’s bag as vice president. 

Since then Pence has abided everything he knows is wrong about a president who allegedly cheated on his wife, lies compulsively, politicizes the military, denigrates veterans and soldiers, undermines the judiciary, disregards Congress’ power of the purse and exercise of oversight, denies the danger of a deadly pandemic and will not show empathy for mass death the likes of which the country has rarely endured. That, of course, leaves out any potential crimes — campaign finance violations, rape, obstruction of justice, tax fraud — that President Trump could be prosecuted for once he leaves office. 

In the 1990s Pence penned columns about President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, writing: “the president’s repeated lies to the American people in this matter compound the case against him as they demonstrate his failure to protect the institution of the presidency as the ‘inspiring supreme symbol of all that is highest in our American ideals.’” He warned that Republican officials should do the right thing even if it means losing: “If our leaders flinch at this responsibility, they would do well to read the Proverb ‘if a ruler listens to lies, all his officials became wicked,’” and he added that if they did not “restore the luster and dignity of the institution of the presidency… we can be certain that this is only the beginning of an even more difficult time for our land.”

Pence knows no president has ever protected the institution of the presidency less than the man whose leadership he praises in syrupy superlatives. Pence has listened to lies and become wicked because of his ambition to one day be president himself. Pence knows this is an acutely difficult time for our land. Will he flinch at his responsibility to acknowledge the rightful winner of the presidency? 

We know Pence would like to do the right thing, to congratulate Biden and to attend his inauguration, to do what duty requires. We don’t know if he will. But he should.