Mike Pence has been tip-toeing around actually criticizing Donald Trump ever since his former boss convinced a hoard of his supporters to bust into the United States Capitol and try to overturn the 2020 election, and to call for Pence to be murdered while they were at it.
His 2024 campaign announcement wasn’t all that different.
Sure, as most have pointed out, Pence’s Iowa speech launching his bid actually calls the guy who orchestrated the coup attempt out by name. But that’s about as far as the former VP went, bare-minimuming his way into a packed GOP primary race that Trump is already leading — by a lot.
“The American people deserve to know on that fateful day, President Trump also demanded I choose between him and our Constitution,” Pence said. “Now, voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution, and I always will.”
“One last word that in part brings us here today,” he continued. “I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again.”
It’s a limp rebuke fit for a white-bread guy, who only considered criticizing one of the nation’s most dangerous presidents years after he personally put him in harms way.
The Best Of TPM Today
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The latest in TPM Prime from Josh Kovensky: Ukraine’s Long-Anticipated Counteroffensive: How Much Do We Know?
WH Sounds Alarm After McCarthy Tries To Buy Off Far-Right With Soc Security-Slashing Commission
Oh Look, It’s Mark Meadows Making A Cameo In Jack Smith’s Probes
A Little Bit Of 2022 Déjà Vu In North Carolina?
Climate Crisis Is On Track To Push One-Third Of Humanity Out Of Its Most Livable Environment
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Comer Tries To Run The First Trump Impeachment In Reverse — Josh Kovensky
What We Are Reading
Ken Paxton Impeachment Prosecutor: We’ve Got a Slam Dunk Case — Daily Beast
Scoop: Fox News says Tucker Carlson breached his contract — Axios
CNN’s Chris Licht showed the problem with anti-woke centrism — WaPo
