Conservative columnist George Will nailed it when he described Mike Pence as Trump’s poodle nearly two years ago.
Pence is a self-righteous weasel who is Trump’s wingman and an icon to the religious right-wing tribes that adore the Orange Buffoon.
In an October 2017 column, Will’s caustic remarks about Pence’s chameleonic character and “pre-planned virtue pageant” and uses a gold-plated machete to cut through the bogus jungles of political complexities.
Will wrote: “With eyes wide open, Mike Pence eagerly auditioned for the role as Donald Trump’s poodle. Now comfortably leashed, he deserves the degradations that he seems too sycophantic to recognize as such. He did Trump’s adolescent bidding with last Sunday’s pre-planned virtue pageant of scripted indignation — his flight from the predictable sight of players kneeling during the national anthem at a football game.”
Pence will sometimes make another unashamed pilgrimage to climb the mount of hypocrisy to preach his us-against-them sermons that are popular at Trump rallies and right-wing Christian stops.
Recently, Pence responded to his wife’s critics about teaching at a school that prohibits LGBT students and faculty:
“Attacking Christian education is deeply offensive,” he said
Adding, “My wife and I have been in the public eye for quite a while. We’re used to the criticism,” Pence said in an interview with Eternal Word Television Network. “But I have to tell you, to see major news organizations attacking Christian education, is deeply offensive to us.”
During photo ops, Pence can sometimes be found standing near Trump and cloaked with an anemic smile, mournful eyes, and an alert poodle pose. Ready to defend this psychopathic liar and con man.
Pence has heard the praises that Trump has heaped on his pal Putin, a Russian gangster and murdering thug who unapologetically wants to destroy America, its democracy and create havoc throughout the free world.
Yet Pence doesn’t utter a word of criticism or make the slightest effort to distance himself this disgusting relationship.
When Trump separated Brown children from their parents and put them in cages, Pence said nothing about this abject cruelty.
When Trump gave Charlottesville white supremacists the white-glove treatment, saying that some were “fine people,” the TV pundits’ jaws dropped. But it is worth noting that long before Charlottesville, Trump earned the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from David Duke and other white supremacists.
Pence stayed conveniently quiet.
When Trump spewed and kept chalking up vulgar words, odious racism, and despicable deeds, Pence’s silence was loud and clear.
But when Pence speaks, it’s often to identify with Trump’s bigotry and lies. Pence’s support of another of Trump’s avid supporter, Joe Arpaio was disgraceful, sick. Arpaio was the former sheriff of Maricopa County until 2016 when voters tired of his act and tossed out of office.
Will didn’t mince words when he wrote in a May 8, 2018 column: “Pence, oozing unctuousness from every pore, called Arpaio “another favorite,” professed himself “honored” by Arpaio’s presence, and praised him as “a tireless champion of . . . the rule of law.” Arpaio, a grandstanding, camera-chasing bully, and darling of the thuggish right is also a criminal, convicted of contempt of court for ignoring a federal judge’s order to desist from certain illegal law enforcement practices. Pence’s performance occurred eight miles from the home of Sen. John McCain, who could teach Pence — or perhaps not — something about honor.”
George Will summed it up best: “No unblinkered observer can still cling to the hope that Pence has the inclination, never mind the capacity, to restrain, never mind educate, the man who elevated him to his current glory. Pence is a reminder that no one can have sustained transactions with Trump without becoming too soiled for subsequent scrubbing.”
Trump pardoned Arpaio in 2017. Arpaio, an Obama birther supporter, thanked Trump on Twitter and blamed a “political witch hunt” and Obame for his demise:
“Thank you @realdonaldtrump for seeing my conviction for what it is: a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department!,” he posted.