Former Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News on Friday that he “cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.” His statement has been received as a momentous development in Republican politics. Analysts and commentators have called it a “bombshell,” a “surprise” and a “major statement.” My sharp colleague Steve Benen called it “extraordinary.”
Allow me to strike a dissenting note. Pence’s statement — if you listen to all of it — is the weakest possible non-endorsement of Trump he could have articulated. It hardly represents a sharp rejection of Trump, and to the extent that it does, it does so for reasons that shouldn’t comfort us. It’s not a bombshell but a whimper, and a signpost of complicity in Trump’s assault on the republic.
Pence’s announcement that he won’t endorse Trump is particularly weak because he refuses to rule out voting for him.
Pence’s announcement that he won’t endorse Trump is particularly weak because he refuses to rule out voting for him. When Fox News host Martha MacCallum asked whether he’d vote for President Joe Biden, Pence replied that was going to “keep my vote to myself” and pledged that he would “never vote for Joe Biden.” That means, if he casts a ballot, he’ll vote either for a third-party candidate or for Trump. By publicly refusing to rule out a vote for Trump, his non-endorsement looks more like performative piety than it does a punch at his former boss — and a far cry from fomenting resistance within the GOP.
Pence’s rationale for his non-endorsement sheds light on why he took such a soft position. The former vice president isn’t drawing a line in the sand over protecting democracy, but, rather, he’s mewling about how Trump has moved away from the mainstream conservatism that predated Trump. Pence discusses how he was “incredibly proud” of the work he and Trump did. In his list of reasons for describing his move away from Trump he briefly mentions…
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