WaPo Opinion: The revelations about Mike Pence's role in Jan. 6 keep getting worse

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Kevin M. Kruse Retweeted

There's a big revelation buried in all the new reporting about the John Eastman memo: Pence apparently went further than we thought in entertaining whether to execute the coup scheme.

@RepRaskin
tells me the 1/6 committee will likely flesh all this out:

Link to tweet

Opinion | The revelations about Mike Pence’s role in Jan. 6 keep getting worse

[Bayard]

1. Well, there's a big teaser

[question everything]

11. More details

Some of this is known from the new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of The Post. But the Times adds new texture from Eastman. He says although Pence appeared resistant to the idea, he and Jacob did take it seriously:

Mr. Eastman recalled getting in touch with Mr. Pence’s legal counsel Mr. Jacob the next day about whether Mr. Pence could delay the certification.
“I think Jacob was looking for a way for he and Pence to be convinced to take the action that we were requesting, and so I think he continued to meet with me and push back on the arguments and hear my counters, what have you, to try and see whether they could reconcile themselves to what the president had asked,” Mr. Eastman said.

Pence ultimately declared that he did not have this unilateral power. But the point is that, if Eastman is correct, Pence and Jacob sought to be convinced otherwise. It’s possible Pence simply went through these motions to placate Trump. But the Jan. 6 committee will have to find out the full truth.

(snip)

As Raskin points out, whatever Pence’s intentions, we have already learned from the Eastman memo, and from other ways Trump tried to subvert the count of electors, that this process is full of serious vulnerabilities that could well be exploited by future bad actors who are willing to go through with it.

(snip)

And so, the news that Pence may have seriously probed whether he could execute this plot can be seen as a harbinger of more to come. Illuminating this could help build the case for reform.

[brush]

2. Worst how?

[localroger]

4. Probably referring to the revelation that Pence called Dan Quayle to ask his advice

...instead of rejecting the whole idea out of hand, as he should have instantly done.

[ShazzieB]

8. What matters to me is that Pence made the right decision in the end.

Sure, it would have been great if he'd immediately rejected the idea, but considering the presures he must have been under at the time, I am not unhappy that he investigated carefully, including asking the advice of a previous GOP veep (Quayle) before deciding to disobey his lord and master.

I actually think it's kind of amazing that he didn't cave to Trump after 4+ years of taking all the abuse and rendering all the abject subservience that we all know being Trump's loyal lapdog and lickspittle entails. Who knew Pence had even the vestiges of a backbone left by then?

I still can't stand Pence, but I can honestly say that the complete and utter contempt I had for him prior to January 6 is slightly less knowing that he did the right thing in the end. He must have known about the threats on his life by the time Congress went back to the Capitol that night to finish the certification, and he still didn't cave. I think he deserves a little bit of credit for that.

Ugh, I can't believe I'm (sort of) defending that slimy little toad. But in this one instance I'm (sort of) willing to do so!

[Baitball Blogger]

3. I wonder if it's the guns that make these people so bold.

[hadEnuf]

6. I think that is a major part of it.

Notice how they all scamper back under their rocks when they are evenly matched or out-gunned.

[Claire Oh Nette]

10. Guns and lack of melanin....

President Obama was spot on with his "They cling to guns and religion..."

They are my brother: he lives in Sacramento, in an area where Black people also live. Raised in the lily white suburbs of LA like me, he didn't know many black people growing up. He toyed with the idea of moving here to WNC/Charlotte area, but decided after his visit four years ago that he didn't want to live so close to black people.

I knew he wouldn't be able to cope living in The South. I figured it would be for religious reasons (we're not a church going family, although my brother does believe in God) and the fairly conservative culture here. Nope. He is *afraid* of black people. He won't walk his dog, just lets her out and watches from the safety of his front door. Because he is afraid to walk her where ordinary Black folks are, also walking their dogs.

With the radical reactionary GQP idjits armed to the teeth and locked and loaded, openly hating on others, the others have taken to purchasing handguns. Asians and Black people have stepped up their gun ownership because they have to, since the fearful, fragile white male is irrationally terrified of Black men.

After President Obama, we had four years of purposely White Supremacy vocally claiming its right to speak as loudly and offensively as possible. Now that we've got a female VP (who happens to be Black and India Indian), the reactionaries in the GQP are systematically trying to legislate away any progress made in Civil Rights and in Women's Rights. They're seeking vengeance and power and control simply because a Black man and a Black woman occupy the highest seats in the land. Envy and fear are not good bedfellows.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Pence's moment of Republican leadership passed when he had to consult others

because he either didn't know what to do, or didn't know how to do it.

No matter how you slice it or dice it, Mike Pence is still Mike Pence.

[mn9driver]

7. From the looks of it, his question to Quayle was not about right and wrong

But about whether he could get away with it. If Quayle had given the wrong answer, it might have been game over for democracy.

[FakeNoose]

9. Does Mike Pence have a law degree? Not sure ...

... but if he does, it needs to be revoked.

That is all.

[czarjak]

12. Law degree? He's flunking Sunday School.