"After everything I've done for him ..."
Vice President Pence was loyal to Trump until he gave himself up. Now he has to decide whether to throw the voted US President out of the Oval Office. Or let him go on. There is already evidence that he has made up his mind.
Last Thursday night at 3:41 a.m. Washington time came the moment that made Mike Pence a traitor. At least in the eyes of US President Donald Trump and his supporters.
The Vice President of the United States is behind his desk in the House of Representatives meeting room after a long and disturbing day, doing his last official duty. At the joint House-Senate meeting, he reads the numbers that mark the end of his term: 306 electoral body votes for Biden and Harris. For Trump and him 232 votes.
His tone is firm, sober, technical. A speaking robot could not have carried out the task more precisely. Pence seems to want to avoid any impression of having any influence on what is happening.
Thousands of Trump supporters had expected otherwise from him. They had stormed the Capitol the previous afternoon to prevent the certification process. It was angry hordes who marauded through the corridors, tainted the sanctuary of American democracy, and devastated offices. Shots rang out. This day cost the lives of five people. The storm on the Capitol will go down in US history.
It was Trump who, in a speech in front of the White House, incited the crowd to move to the Capitol. That is why the Democrats want to impeach him for "inciting an uprising" by Wednesday at the latest, ie indict him before the Senate.
Pence give the Democrats the chance to take action themselves beforehand. They want to vote on him this Tuesday in the House of Representatives to activate the 25th Amendment to the Constitution within 24 hours. Which means that he would have to convene the cabinet during that time, which is then supposed to declare the majority of Trump incapable of office.
"Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!" Insurgents shout
Pence has not yet commented publicly on this. But according to all that is known, he will not follow the invitation. Even if he allegedly left the 25th amendment to the constitution open as an option in the past few days. In the event that Trump becomes a threat again.
On Monday evening, six days after the storm, it was announced that Pence and Trump had spoken to each other again. A government official said it was a "good conversation". The White House was also about the riots. Both have affirmed that violations of the law in the storming of the Capitol were not in line with the Trump movement. They would also have discussed the next few days. So, despite clear withdrawal movements, it looks like Pence isn't trying to activate the 25th Amendment. As if Pence was standing by Trump one last time.
Mike Pence might have prevented a lot. For example, when Trump fired FBI chief James Comey in the spring of 2017 in the hope of ending the Russia investigation. At that time, Deputy Justice Minister Rod Rosenstein is said to have discussed internally the question of whether that could be a reason to remove Trump from office. Or after it emerged that Trump had forced the Ukrainian President to investigate his possible challenger Joe Biden. This "perfect" call, as Trump claims to this day, led to the first impeachment against Trump.
In either case, it never occurred to Pence to act. Pence would probably have buried his own political future. He is said to have ambitions to one day move into the White House as president-elect. For him, the vice-presidency should be the stepping stone into the Oval Office. That is one of the reasons why he decided against Trump this once.
Last Tuesday, when Trump still had access to his Twitter account, he posted that "we will win the presidency" if Pence calls him the election winner instead of Biden. Pence was finally faced with the question, which he absolutely wanted to avoid answering: Should he make himself an accomplice of Trump in his endeavors to overturn a legally valid election result? Or submit to his constitutional duties?
He chose the constitution. At the last moment. And for the first time against Trump. On Wednesday morning he had a statement published in which he described himself as unable to violate a constitution to which he had sworn his allegiance in the name of God.
Trump is said to have grabbed the anger. He tweeted that Pence "lacked the courage" to do what was necessary. Shortly thereafter, Trump appeared in front of the White House in front of tens of thousands of his supporters and asked them to march to the Capitol. You should show the "weak" among the Republicans what the right way to go.
Some of Trump's supporters had very specific ideas about what the right path should be for Pence: straight to hell. A little later the calls resounded in front of the Capitol: "Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!" Insurgents erected a gallows for pence in front of the Capitol. Only symbolically, it seemed.
A press photographer for the Reuters agency later reported, however, that he had heard at least three insurgents say that they were looking for the "traitor" Pence to untangle him in the Capitol. And in the White House, according to sources from Jonathan Swan, a reporter for the news website Axios, Trump is said to have followed the television images of the uprising with "a certain degree of satisfaction".
Trump and Pence have always been an alliance of convenience. One in which Pence was used by Trump in the hope of one day being able to use Trump. A hope Pence had to bury on January 6th.
Long-time Senator James Inhofe from Oklahoma told his home newspaper Tulsa World that he had spoken to his old friend Pence for a long time on the night of the uprising. He had never seen Pence so angry. At one point the Vice President told him about Trump: "After everything I've done for him ..."
The disappointment may be real. But Pence could have guessed it all. If he had wanted to.
