Along with being Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence is also Donald Trump’s chief lackey and bootlicker. Therefore it was no surprise when Pence appeared this morning on television praising his criminal boss for shutting down the government for 35 days and costing the nation billions of dollars it will never get back.
Do you think the shutdown was a mistake? – @JeffGlor
“I never think it’s a mistake… to stand up for what you believe in and I think what the American people admire most about this president is he says what he means and he means what he says in a very real sense.” –@VP Pence
Do you think the shutdown was a mistake? – @JeffGlor
"I never think it's a mistake… to stand up for what you believe in and I think what the American people admire most about this president is he says what he means and he means what he says in a very real sense." –@VP Pence pic.twitter.com/x9MHuVQ9Hn
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— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) February 6, 2019
Pence indicated that the shutdown was a good move and an effective way to force legislative action on his border wall. He also implied that the administration might try another shutdown again next week in order to get Congress to give in to his petulant demands for a totally ineffective and misguided border wall with Mexico.
Pence made an appearance Wednesday morning on “CBS This Morning,” and he was effusive in his praise for Trump for forcing the longest shutdown in U.S. history as a means to gain negotiating leverage. Apparently the vice president still thinks that Congress will give Trump the requested $5.7 billion in funding for his long-promised border wall.
During the interview Pence said:
“I never think it’s a mistake to stand up for what you believe in, and I think what the American people admire most about this president is he says what he means and he means what he says in a very real sense.”
“He said there’s a crisis at our southern border. He said he was determined to get the funding to build a wall and secure our border, and he was willing to take a stand to accomplish that.”
Pence ignored the fact that Congressional Democrats have vowed that they will never appropriate money for a border wall. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said more than once that Trump will get nothing for the wall, ever, no matter what he does.
Still Pence refused to guarantee that Trump won’t force another shutdown when the current temporary agreement ends on February 15. He said:
“Well, I think our hope is that there’s not, but I can’t make that guarantee. The simple truth is that Congress needs to do their job. The president laid out last night a common-sense approach to deal with what is a very real crisis on our southern border.”
Pence is one of the few people still standing by Donald Trump despite his many legal problems. There is no question that Pence wants to be president, and many Washington insiders believe that he in fact expects to become president after Trump is forced to leave office. And it has been reported that he thinks him becoming president is part of God’s plan.
But Mike Pence has probably got it wrong. God’s plan for him is more likely to include indictment for his criminal behavior, followed by leaving the office of the vice presidency in disgrace. The more evidence that comes out about Donald Trump’s crimes, the more it becomes obvious that Pence was complicit in many of those crimes.
Mike Pence is a co-conspirator in the criminal Trump presidency, and he is unlikely to serve out his term.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
