Will he remain a loyal or turn to a traitor? It’s a challenge for the first week of the new year in front of Vice President Mike Pence. The moment of choice comes on the 6th (local time). In the process of certifying and proclaiming the results of the Senate’s electoral team, one of the formal closing procedures of the US presidential election. The chairman of the Senate serves this role, and the chairman of the United States is served by the vice president for granted. President Donald Trump is already putting pressure on Pence by tweeting with the point, “I look forward to January 6th.” On the other hand, anti-Trump media outlets such as the New York Times (NYT) and CNN are raising concerns about whether Pence will make the right choice on the 6th (NYT column on the 29th of last month). The choice is up to the fence.
For Pence, Trump is a benefactor. Pence was just a Republican politician with little presence, though unfamiliar, until he was awarded a vice presidential score from Trump. However, while being vice president, he jumped to the next Republican army at once. He is considered to have played the role of a weight for four years while keeping the side of Trump who doesn’t know where he will bounce, and now he is in a position to weigh in until running for president in 2024. Reporter Maggie Haberman, who won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for writing an article about Trump and his close associates as NYT’s political reporter, wrote about Pence in August last year, “I am looking at 2024 out of the shadow of Trump.
The dilemma is that if you want to grow your ambitions for 2024, you have to betray your benefactor Trump. Pence has already volunteered for a new coronavirus infectious disease (Corona 19) vaccine, which President Trump has not yet been hit, and is taking a little by little differentiation.
In the pro-Trump camp, backlash against the fence is already detected. US media Axios reported on the 22nd of last month that “President Trump made a stride against those who did not question the results of the presidential election among his close associates, including Pence.” On the 27th of last month, Republican Veteran Congressman Louis Gourmet filed a lawsuit in his district court in Texas, saying, “We must give Vice President Pence (January 6) the power to overturn the election results (Joe Biden’s victory).” In one state. American public opinion is that the possibility of the court accepting this lawsuit is not legally great. However, if Pence remains silent, his position within the Republican Party will inevitably narrow.
Although he was defeated, Trump proved the power of his vote, winning more than 7.4 million votes (about 46.8%). For the Pence, a Republican to the bones, it is bound to be of concern. In addition, competitors, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are already visible in the 2024 presidential race.
Republicans’ doubts about the pence have already materialized in 2019. Reports even came out that the anonymous author of the book A Warning, which sharply criticized the Trump administration, was Pence. The book was full of details that were unknown to the incumbent Trump administration officials, and many media at the time named Pence as the author. Pence strongly denied this, and in the end, the author turned out to be Miles Taylor, former Secretary of Homeland Security. However, the fact that he was designated as a fence has become a kind of scarlet writing.
On the other hand, the word that symbolizes the fence is honesty. As a Christian, he is the copyright holder of the’Pence Rule’, which says that without a wife, he does not eat as well as alcohol with other women. He has a deep connection with Korea. His father, Edward Pence, was a veteran of the Korean War, and received the same-sex medal in recognition of his major. In the office of the Vice President of Pence, a picture of his father receiving a medal is hung. When Vice President Pence visited Korea in 2017, he said, “I thought of my father while looking down on the Korean Peninsula from an airplane.”
What will this fence have between Trump demanding an objection to the presidential election and 2024? From the beginning, 2021 has been a time of challenge for Pence.
Reporter Jeon Sujin [email protected]