Even before January 6th, we heard Trump talk about his expectations regarding Pence’s duty to the country in counting the ballots. Trump expected Pence to basically overrule the election, perhaps by rejecting the Electoral College votes submitted by the contested states. Trump might have expected this even though Pence had absolutely no authority to do such a thing.

Then at a rally in Georgia on January 4th, Trump mentioned that he was very happy having had Mike Pence as Vice President but he’d have to see what happened on the 6th because if Pence didn’t do the right thing, Trump wouldn’t be so happy with Pence.

Pence knew Trump’s desires long beforehand, of course, but this really put the pressure on Pence. Now the Daily Beast has the details from within the White House prior to the hearing on the 6th. Trump said:

“You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a pussy.” That’s according to a New York Times report with new details about the schism between Pence and Trump. After Pence rebuffed Trump and headed to the Capitol to oversee the Electoral College count, Trump blasted him in the speech that incited a mob to storm the building.

The Times reports that after Pence was evacuated to the basement, Trump never called to check on his safety, instead attacking him on Twitter. The newspaper says that five days after the riots, Pence returned to the West Wing and was invited that evening to meet with Trump. “The official description of the hourlong conversation was ‘good’; the unofficial description was ‘nonsubstantive’ and ‘stilted,’” the Times wrote.

We had read that the White House staff was aghast at the way that Trump treated Mike Pence. “Unconscionable” was a word used that we recall. “Humiliating” was another. This sounds exactly in line with what we heard and someone enraged by Trump’s behavior toward Pence surely leaked the details. People will only take so much when they see others unfairly attacked, worse than someone would treat an animal.

Trump deserves these leaks. He needs to have everyone hear exactly what people are saying. It can only make him look worse on the way out the door and perhaps make some of those Christian evangelicals rethink their loyalty to Trump.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak