Iowa Puts Pence on the Spot Over Jan. 6
Iowa Puts Pence on the Spot Over Jan. 6
Luann Bertrand confronted Mike Pence while he was eating at a Pizza Ranch in the middle of his three-day campaign trip across the state of Iowa.
Ms. Bertrand, a retired store manager whose family grows corn and herds cattle south of Sioux City, had a question about January 6, 2021, the date that hangs over the Pence campaign like a land mine. Ms. Bertrand’s family is also involved in the livestock and corn farming businesses.
In Iowa, the state whose caucuses would determine Mr. Pence’s fate in the upcoming election, Ms. Bertrand made the accusation that the previous vice president was responsible for President Biden‘s position in the White House. Ms. Bertrand, dressed in grey and seated at a table of GOP voters in the restaurant, pointed her finger at Mr. Pence and informed him that on January 6, he should have rejected the electoral votes of certain states.
After attentively listening with his hands clenched around his belt, Mr. Pence responded in a robust manner.
An Issue for Mike Pence to Consider
“If it weren’t for your vote, Joe Biden would not be serving as Vice President of the United States. It is inappropriate for Joe Biden to be present. And all of those amazing things that you and Trump were accomplishing together would be continuing, and the course that this country is on would be the correct one. Do you ever question your decisions or judgements?
You were required to return those votes to the states in accordance with the Constitution, as that right was granted to you. It was not as if you were going to cast your vote for him directly. Whoever won that election was easily identifiable by the total number of votes cast. This is common knowledge. You altered the course of history for this nation.
The Gist of It
Mr. Pence has a position in the Republican presidential contest that is both plausibly strong and tremendously weak: He ranks third in polling averages, but with only around 7 percent support, which is a significant distance behind former President Donald J. Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. His position is both credibly strong and incredibly poor.
An examination of the polls reveals the following reasons: About one in three people who would vote in the Republican primary have an unfavourable opinion of Mr. Pence. A study of registered voters across the country found that the same proportion of respondents said they would never vote for him.
Anti-Trump Republicans are leery of Mr. Pence’s years of silent servitude as the No. 2, while a large portion of the GOP base that supports Mr. Trump and his continuous lying about the 2020 election blames Mr. Pence for his actions on January 6, when he refused to stop certification of the results. Mr. Pence’s years of quiet obedience as the No. 2 have earned him the distrust of anti-Trump Republicans.
The Response of Mike Pence
“The Constitution does not give the vice president or anyone else the authority to reject votes or send votes back to the states,” the Constitution declares. It had never been done before. Never in the future should something like this be attempted.
I’m sorry to break it to you, ma’am, but the Constitution does in fact state that. No vice president in the history of the United States has ever claimed to have the authority that you are under the impression that I did. I want to tell you, with all the respect in the world — and I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it right now — that President Trump was mistaken about my authority that day, and he’s still wrong.”
The Gist of It
Mr. Pence is not waging a campaign that is centred on the upcoming election on January 6; rather, he portrays himself as a traditional conservative in the mould of Ronald Reagan. In spite of this, the conversation was regarded as extremely significant for Mr. Pence by the candidate, his campaign, a super PAC that backs him, and other Republican strategists from the outside.
What Opinions Are Shared By Other People
A spokesman for the campaign named Devin O’Malley stated that it was the first time a voter openly questioned Mr. Pence about “sending back” electoral votes in 2020 to state legislatures, which is a widespread myth on the right. According to Mr. O’Malley, Mr. Pence made the decision to make a statement by leaning into his response.
“I don’t think it was lost on him that the answer that he was going to give was going to be one that was going to be one that was kind of the answer of record and would be given a lot of attention,” she said.
We see this as an opportunity to differentiate ourselves from the other applicants. I don’t think there’s a moment in recent history that any one political leader has faced which has placed on show their character and their judgement more than that one day when it comes to the question of who stands solidly with the Constitution of the United States of America when it comes under enormous pressure.
The Family Leadership Summit, which is a meeting of evangelical voters, will take place in Iowa on Friday, and Mr. Pence will be there along with the other Republican candidates (but not Mr. Trump). Even if they are the most important voting bloc for Mr. Pence’s candidature, these people continue to have a strong commitment to Mr. Trump.
Mr. Pence did the right thing by tackling Jan. 6 head-on in Sioux City, according to Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader, the group that is hosting the summit. Vander Plaats stated this despite the fact that there are many voters who he would never win over.
“He needs to take responsibility for it and double down on it. Everyone has their own challenges to overcome, and Mike Pence is going to have to get over this one.
“Since the former president has boastfully said Pence was wrong, he wimped out, and he lacked courage, his base of supporters are going to believe that,” the author of the article said. Pence is not going to be successful in winning over Trump’s base on this issue. But Pence isn’t making any effort to win over Trump’s core supporters.
In agreement was Scott Reed, co-chairman of a super PAC in Iowa that is attempting to elect Mr. Pence by organising support from the grassroots level and conducting advertising. In his opinion, Mr. Pence’s reaction to the voter was absolutely brilliant. When he said, “We put it in the can,” he was referring to the fact that the recording will be used in a future television advertisement.
“There is a portion of the party that we are never going to get, and that is the Steve Bannon crowd,” the speaker said. And there’s a lot of the party that we can still get our hands on.”
It is uncertain whether Mr. Pence’s response of the voter — and his shot at Mr. Trump — will assist in the caucuses, which are on January 15, 2024. David Oman, a prominent center-right Republican strategist in Iowa who is unaffiliated with a campaign, said it was unclear whether Mr. Pence’s reply of the voter would help.
“In a period of six months, would it be useful or unhelpful? We’ll see.”
Regarding the events that took place on January 6, my own opinion is that Mike Pence will come out looking well in history. He will, at some point in the future, be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Probably from one of the Democrats running for president.”
The Opinions of the Voters
Ms. Bertrand, the voter who filed the lawsuit against Mr. Pence, stated in a subsequent interview the untrue claim that lawyers who advised Mr. Trump that his vice president may refuse states’ electoral votes had previously been successful in winning cases for Mr. Trump.
(John Eastman, the lawyer for President Trump who promoted this conspiracy theory concerning the election in 2020, is in danger of being disbarred in the state of California. Mr. Pence’s legal counsel informed him that Mr. Eastman was in the wrong, and one of them testified in front of a grand jury investigating Mr. Trump in connection with the disturbance that occurred on January 6.
Ms. Bertrand stated that she was interested in hearing from other candidates since, despite the fact that she voted for Donald Trump in the previous election, she is unsure whether or not she will support him in the caucuses held in the following year. However, Mr. Pence was not successful in persuading her that his actions on January 6 were appropriate.
“President Trump has been accused on multiple occasions and has gone to court and won every case. As a result, I’m under the assumption that in this case, when President Trump said he had a right to challenge Vice President Pence on his decision, it was his lawyers who told him that — the same lawyers who had come out on top in the past.”
“But it makes no difference whether I’m right or wrong,” she said. Pence should be aware, in my opinion, that there are individuals not only in Iowa but also in the rest of the country who continue to hold this belief because there are people in Iowa who believe it. When he’s jogging, he faces that obstacle head-on as a challenge.
“I did not have the impression that I was attacking him on a personal level. I just wanted him to be aware that there are more people like me than there are like him in the world.
