Mike Pence Betrayed America

He's to blame for every crime and every abuse of power Trump committed after January 6th

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Mike Pence was rightfully scared on January 6th. For weeks or months, he had known the defeated one-term loser Trump would not go quietly. In the days leading up to January 6th, Pence knew Trump was actively planning a coup based on a truly Big Lie. He knew that Trump had surrounded himself with every goon he could find to help him execute the plan. That very afternoon, Pence knew Trump had unleashed an angry mob of delusional morons and armed extremists who, having invaded the Capitol, were willing to kill him, Nancy Pelosi and potentially others. He knew that, hours into the siege, Trump had sent a tweet not to calm the mob, but to inflame them further. He knew that, even when he reached a secure location surrounded by the Secret Service, he was still not safe. He refused to get into a car driven by an agent he didn’t know because he knew Trump would stop at nothing to keep him from finishing the job he had come to the Capitol to do that day.

He knew that Trump had betrayed the nation on January 6th and Mike Pence stuck around to do his job and save America.

Many want to call him a hero for what he did that day.

But having survived January 6th, Mike Pence betrayed America on January 7th and every single day after that, ensuring that America remained in peril right up to the moment Joe Biden was sworn in on January 20th.

Mike Pence Stayed Loyal to the End

Immediately after the Trump insurrection, the resignations came flying in. Among them: Melania’s Chief of Staff Stephanie Grisham and Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews, who both resigned the same day. Cabinet Secretaries Elaine Chao (wife of Mitch McConnell) and Betsy DeVos resigned January 7th. Even former Chief of Staff, the notorious political thug Mick Mulvaney, resigned as Trump’s Special Envoy to Northern Ireland. Many others followed suit.

On January 7th, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called on Mike Pence to invoke to 25th Amendment: “If the vice president and Cabinet do not act, the Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment,” said Pelosi.

We now know that Betsy DeVos’s decision to resign on January 7th came AFTER she also tried and failed to convince Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment.

But on January 12th, as the House moved toward impeaching Trump for a second time, Mike Pence publicly rejected the idea of invoking the 25th Amendment.

Pence Didn’t Act. But Trump Did

Realizing he wasn’t being put in a straitjacket, arrested for treason—or even escorted out of the building with just a few personal items thrown hastily into a box—Trump sprang into action committing as many crimes and abuses of power as one man could possibly squeeze into his last week on a job.

On January 13th, Trump began unleashing new waves of pardons and commutations—handing out nearly 200 more get-out-of-jail-free cards to a rogues’ gallery of accomplices, friends, donors, and assorted ne’er-do-wells.

The most consequential of Trump’s January 2021 pardons—all of which were made possible by Mike Pence—was that of “We Build the Wall” thief Steve Bannon. Bannon not only helped inspire the January 6th insurrection, he’s also spent his time since his pardon openly planning the next one.

Other last-minute Trump pardons, as reported by CNN, included:

• Elliott Broidy, a former top fundraiser for Trump's campaign who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy relating to a secret lobbying campaign to influence the Trump administration on behalf of a foreign billionaire in exchange for millions of dollars.
• Paul Erickson, the conservative political operative and ex-boyfiend of alleged Russian spy Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges.
• Robin Hayes, a North Carolina political donor convicted of trying to bribe officials.
• Aviem Sella, an Israeli air force officer who the US accused of being a spy.
• Bob Zangrillo, the Miami developer and venture capitalist charged in the Varsity Blues college admission scandal, also received a pardon. None of the other parents caught up in the probe were pardoned.

Mike Pence Allowed Trump to Steal Those 15 Boxes

By not invoking the 25th Amendment, Mike Pence also paved the way for Trump to steal 15 boxes of Classified and Top Secret information and transport them to Mar-a-Lago when he finally did leave the White House.

As The Washington Post noted:

The tale of these 15 boxes — and the material contained within — underscores how defiantly and indiscriminately Trump violated the records law, which requires that the White House preserve all written communication related to a president’s official duties and then turn it over to the National Archives.

We may never get back all the stuff Trump and his sticky-fingered spawn stole on their way out the door but, on the plus side, at least the world survived—again, no thanks to Mike Pence.

As Bob Woodward and Robert Costa revealed in their 2021 book “Peril,” there was legitimate concern that the frantic psychopath Mike Pence had decided to leave in charge of the nuclear codes would actually try to use his “big button.”

As The Hill put it:

According to the two journalists, Milley “was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.”

Due to this perceived “decline,” Woodward and Costa wrote that Milley convened a secret meeting at the Pentagon on Jan. 8 in order to review the process of military actions. According to the CNN report, Milley ordered senior military officials to not take orders from anyone unless he was involved.

Thankfully Trump was more interested in lining his own pockets, continuing his ongoing email scams, and getting his accomplices and co-conspirators back on the streets to plan future criminal endeavors.

Pence Made Sure Trump Survived His 2nd Impeachment, Too

Even when Trump was out of office, Pence’s continued silence ensured that Trump survived his second impeachment trial in February 2021.

As The Washington Post wrote at the time:

After four years of obedience as vice president, Pence has no plans to condemn Trump or to speak out during the Senate impeachment trial, people close to the former vice president said. He is still operating from a playbook of obsequiousness that became second nature — he never aired his grievances publicly and delivered his often rose-colored counsel to Trump only in private, one-on-one settings.

Instead of speaking up to ensure that Trump was convicted and barred for seeking office again, Pence—who could have exposed the shocking truth about January 6th that the whole world is only now finding out—chose to facilitate Trump’s acquital. As as result, the psychopathic Traitor-in-Chief remains the head of what is now the “Dark MAGA” GOP.  Trump has continued to to run his email scams and host his fact-free rallies while stoking the fantasies of  his white supremacist, testicle-tanning fans who dream of the day he will one day regain power and punish all those who crossed him.

And Don’t Forget Covid

It’s also worth noting that all of Trump’s coup planning, conspiracies and crimes occured during the first fall and winter of Covid-19. Mike Pence was nominally the head of the Coronavirus Task Force. His and Trump’s complete dereliction of duty during the period between the 2020 election and Biden’s inauguration ensured that the Biden Administration would inherit a country with the virus raging out of control, with millions of MAGA voters primed to both resist mask-wearing and the vaccine and to continue spreading the virus. In just two weeks between the insurrection and the inauguration, more than 3 million new cases were recorded and more than 51,000 Americans died.

So there is no hero in this story.

Trump betrayed America on January 6th.

Mike Pence betrayed America on January 7th and has continued to do so every day since.

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