Former Vice President Mike Pence should be commended for having the courage to tell the truth about former President Donald Trump’s despicable conduct related to the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot.
Especially when cherry-picked, out-of-context release of Capitol video has Trump backers again inflamed with the false narrative that the incursion wasn’t dangerous, Pence’s truth-telling comes as welcome relief.
Speaking at the Gridiron Club Dinner (a journalist-led charitable fundraiser) Saturday night, Pence eschewed the event’s traditionally light atmosphere long enough to say this: “President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day. And I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
Then, in a barely veiled rebuke to those misusing the video footage, Pence added: “The American people have a right to know what took place at the Capitol on Jan. 6. But make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace, and it mocks decency to portray it in any other way.”
On the latter point, he is absolutely right. After the hugely violent actions through which the mob forced its way into the Capitol, it is no exoneration for any particular rioter to see Capitol Police walking “peacefully” beside him. Indeed, with officers trained in deescalation tactics, the very fact that one intruder attracted specific attention for an “escort” could easily be as damning about his behavior as it is exculpatory.
We know what happened that day: A violent mob, tacitly encouraged by Trump, overran and often beat up Capitol Police while smashing windows to enter the Capitol. More than 140 officers were injured, some of them quite badly. The rioters’ goal was to stop a sacred civic ceremony from occurring and thereby help overturn a valid election. A large number of them were yelling for the execution of Pence and of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Trump’s moral culpability has been well documented. And he specifically fomented fury against his own vice president numerous times, including in his infamous tweet saying that Pence lacked “courage.”
Well, right now, it takes political courage to call Trump out. With the activist base of the Republican Party deluded into insisting that the riot was no big deal, no other possible Republican challenger to Trump has so definitively told the truth. The rest of them, to one degree or another, seem to fear Trump’s attacks and fear the voters’ disapproval.
On the other hand, the only way to take Trump down is to take him on. Democratic consultant Paul Begala, one of the nastiest verbal knife-fighters in politics, usually isn’t worth quoting, but he provided a vivid and largely astute analysis Sunday on CNN. He said that if someone is sent to a dangerous prison cell block, sometimes the best way to survive is to find the biggest, meanest guy there and punch him in the face. The only way to avoid being beaten by the bad guy is to beat him.
The risks, of course, are obvious. Pence, though, at least has the willingness and integrity to take the risk. It is the same integrity he showed before and during the Capitol incursion itself by resisting Trump’s pressure and insisting that his job was to count the votes, not to change them.
If only Pence would agree to testify in a court of law about Trump’s inordinate and malicious pressure, then Trump might suffer some of the consequences he deserves.
New Orleans native Quin Hillyer is a senior commentary writer and editor for the Washington Examiner, working from the Gulf Coast. This column originally appeared in the Examiner. He can be reached at Qhillyer@WashingtonExaminer.com. His other columns appear at www.washingtonexaminer.com/author/quin-hillyer.
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