What difference would it have made if *45 had been convicted and removed?

[needledriver]

I keep seeing posts about how Republicans own this because they could have done something about it in January, or that there should be a new impeachment because of the COVID-19 response.

What good would it do? Do we honestly believe that Mike pray-away-the-virus Pence would be an improvement? That somehow Pence would have jumped right on top of testing, lockdowns, and stimulus money, or that Mitch McConnell would have suddenly leapt to pass any of the hundreds of bills the Democratic Congress has sent him which are rotting on his desk?

As satisfying as it would be to see *45 perp walked in handcuffs, it wouldn't actually make a difference in how screwed we are.

The only thing that can fix this is a screaming blue GOTV which yields the Presidency and both houses of Congress - and don't expect any miracles in February of 2021. It's going to take years if not decades to undo the systemic rot of 40 years of "make the government small enough to drown in the bathtub politics".

[Phoenix61]

1. I believe Pence would have listened to experts.

He’s too busy sucking up to Twitler to do that now but I think, if on his own, he would. He the lesser bad of really bad.

[hlthe2b]

8. Yup... He's a pragmatist, even though a religious idiot. He'd know enough to listen to the experts

(and yes, I'm fully aware he did not listen to IN experts on the needle exchange, but that was directly related to his ridiculous religious pandering).

[brewens]

2. One thing is if they had thrown Trump out, Pence and whoever he brought in could have

made a good showing, as doubtful as that is. They could have blamed everything on Trump, done everything possible from that point on, and at least looked better than Trump. I doubt that would have been enough to make him President if he ran. Depending on who was running, republicans might be in better shape than they are now. We might have a little better effort going on that could have shortened this thing up and saved some lives, but it would have still been bad.

[Laelth]

3. The world will never know. n/t

-Laelth

[J_William_Ryan]

4. " What difference would it have made if *45 had been convicted and removed?"

None.

Pence is just as incompetent as Trump.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Except...

...the cult doesn't care a whit about Pence, except some evangelicals.
So, millions might have listened to experts and nobody would have sown confusion with remarks about a hoax.
As the caretaker of a disgraced administration, he would not have had the will or the megaphone to make things worse.

[Maeve]

5. Jared wouldn't be in charege of anything

And there are several other family members that would be gone from the WH.

[needledriver]

7. I get your point but that takes us from known nepotism and incompetence

to whatever faith based charlatan has Pence's ear.

[kacekwl]

9. It would have made a huge difference.

It would have made sure he paid a price for his bullshit. We would not have to listen to lies daily and sent a strong message to the rest of his cronies. Like Moscow Mitch. We might have experienced people running this disaster.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

10. Pence is dumb/incompetent/religiously bizarre

but he isn't an extreme narcissist/egomaniac. I doubt that you would seem him touting drugs of dubious value (of which he has no stake) or attacking reporters the way Trump is, engaging in loyalty purges, muzzling the experts. Things still may not be great but I couldn't see Pence screwing it up or corrupting things like Trump and his family have. Pence also actually has government experience, including being the governor of a state, so he would be working less combatively with Congress and other governors.

[FM123]

11. Pence is a disgusting human being on oh so many levels....

But he appears to be educable. Even if he does not believe in science, he seems to believe in math. If trump were removed on February 5th, allowing us to get an earlier start - our numbers would be more like South Korea not Italy. Our very first coronavirus patient was diagnosed here the very same day as South Korea.