Mike Pence: dancing eggs in Iowa The “Unabomber” is dead

The US has a choice between bad and worse. Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump can reunite this divided country, but both are leading us straight into the abyss. But God – and only God! – Thanks for letting me be here.

Thus, the message with which Mike Pence is now entering the race for the White House can be roughly paraphrased. On Wednesday, the former US vice president announced his candidacy for the Republican primary. In Iowa, of course, that contested state in the Northwest that traditionally hosts the first of these primaries.

There, 64-year-old Pence performed a rhetorical egg dance on Wednesday afternoon (local time), broadcast via live stream: How does he explain why he wants to avoid the president, whom he had faithfully served as a deputy for years? Pence tried it this way: He briefly praised Trump for everything he had done for America. But this forced him to choose between him, Trump and the Constitution. “I voted for the Constitution and I will always vote for it!” This, of course, refers to the events surrounding January 6, 2021, when Pence refused to help Trump with his planned election manipulation. Then he sped the violent mob around the Capitol – especially on Pence. Such a person, he now said, should never again be president of the United States.

A “Tragic Day”

It came late, this pivot to Trump. In which promotional video, which Pence had published a few hours earlier, he did not mention the name at all. All the more another: Joe Biden, more specifically the inflation for which the sitting president is responsible. And in Iowa, too, it was mainly against him at first: “The crises we are facing are all man-made – and this man’s name is Joe Biden.” The crowd’s clapping seemed somewhat irritated, as if even his assembled supporters had expected another name at this point.

After all, attacks on Biden are not a unique selling proposition, and in such a large field of candidates you need quite a few if you want to prevail over the others. The strategy of portraying Biden as inept is also used by the nine other candidates for the Republican nomination, many of them avoiding Trump’s personal information as much as possible. Nevertheless, most try to copy his views — slightly modified to suit their own image: Nikki Haley, Trump’s former UN ambassador, wraps hate speech against trans youth in polite, softer tones; Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is trying to be the smart warrior against what he and Trump call the “woke virus.” Chris Christie, on the other hand, the former governor of New Jersey, attacks Trump and compares him to the Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort: «The one whose name must not be mentioned.»

Pence knows he has to say that name. If only because it’s highly unusual for a vice president to challenge his former boss when he’s back at the helm. He almost seems to beg for understanding, referring to various “visions” one had at the end and the “tragic day” representing January 6. Like you’ve grown apart. This can also be explained by the fact that about half of the Republican base still supports Trump. If you want to beat him, you have to snatch supporters who are loyal to him despite all the events of recent years.

The polls see Trump way ahead, followed by Ron DeSantis, followed by the rest. Pence’s odds are currently four percent. What does he expect from this candidacy? He himself justified his decision by saying that it was too easy to stay on the sidelines: “I was not raised that way.” This sideline was his place for many years. Does he, like presumably many vice presidents before him, finally want to have all the power himself? Is it the ambition to beat Trump? Revenge for the potentially deadly threat Trump finally handed him to — and, as Pence noted in Iowa, his family too? Or, as his words repeatedly suggest, does he believe in a higher mission?

Also in this election campaign, every candidate has his say, a kind of advertising slogan for himself as a brand. With Trump, it’s the time-tested “Make America Great Again,” Ron DeSantis unmistakably imitates him with his “Great American Comeback,” and even the newest candidate in the race can’t resist this metaphor: “Together, we can bring this country back.” . , Pence wrote on Twitter announcing his candidacy. “Together we will bring this country back.” But another statement should of course be remembered: “God is not done with America yet.”

No one will doubt that he is serious. Pence likes to describe himself as “Christian, conservative, and Republican, in that order,” his autobiography is titled So help me God. He is a pious man. So pious that he has made it a habit not to eat alone with anyone but his own wife, nor to attend alcoholic events without her. Which could turn out to be a problem if he actually gets the job he is applying for. A US president who refuses a one-on-one meeting with a female counterpart?

The evangelical Pence may be trying to win over one of the most important Republican constituencies with his own denomination. But the Christian right, as the Trump years have shown, doesn’t necessarily elect those who most identify with its goals. But the one she thinks will get her through it. So do powerful lobby groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which wants to ban abortions after the sixth week nationwide. Its chairperson, Marjorie Dannenfelser, recently said in a New York Times podcast that a pledge to sign such a ban is a condition of her group’s approval of a candidate.

To date, she has only received such a promise from one person: Mike Pence. In fact, he has said so publicly before. During his speech in Iowa, he used the topic to distinguish himself from the other candidates – especially one. “Having led the most pro-life administration in American history, Donald Trump, like others in this race, is stepping down for the cause of the unborn,” Pence said.

Pro-life as profiling

There is a clear reason for the “withdrawal” that Pence accuses the others of: the last congressional elections in November showed that Republicans are at risk of losing votes, especially among women, because of restrictive laws against abortion. But unlike Haley or Trump, Pence, as an evangelical Christian, cannot remain vague on the subject. And he clearly doesn’t want that.

“I’m pro-life and I don’t apologize for it,” Pence said Wednesday night, while still in Iowa, while appearing on CNN at one of the so-called town halls the station had previously hosted with Trump and Haley. In 2016, as governor of Indiana, he signed legislation banning abortion, even though it was expected to be eliminated; it was later declared unconstitutional. This is where Pence clearly sees an opportunity to make his mark. And not just here: in the CNN interview, he condemned the war in Ukraine as a “Russian invasion”; it is not a “territorial conflict”. With that last statement, DeSantis had recently made himself unpopular in his own ranks.

While he and Trump serve the right-wing position that U.S. aid to Ukraine should end, Pence has been all the more vocal about it. However, what makes him the relatively most acceptable option among Republicans for the European partner states in this regard puts him in direct opposition to many Trump aides in Congress, who like to rouse their voters by saying that too much money is being spent on Ukraine Help that is more urgently needed at home.

Trump’s opposition is divided

And Pence’s stance on abortion threatens to make him unpopular, and not just with voters in states like Michigan and Kentucky, who launched his party last November. It may not even help him with those who should actually be his core voter: Even in Iowa, which has a particularly high evangelical voter population, polls currently show him only 5 percent of the vote. And on a national level, it is also clear that the most conservative Republican voters support Trump even more than in 2016.

The Trump opposition within the party, in turn, has split – into a shockingly small section, the “Never-Trumper,” for whom this opposition has been a matter of conscience since 2016. And a much bigger one, for which it is a matter of power strategy: they represent similar positions, but hope that Trump will damage himself so much with his many legal problems that he will have to make way for others. The first part probably won’t support him, Pence, since he was a part of the Trump administration until the very end and only stopped his president and his attacks on American democracy at the very last minute. The second part is again fragmented, and with each new presidential candidate it fragments even more.

Now on

All of these candidates will try to keep Trump’s supporters away from Trump for months to come, each with a finely calibrated interplay of imitation and condemnation, copying and distinction. At Pence, that is now expressed in a non-binding phrase like “Different times call for different leadership”. And yet, of all those loyal to Trump, he has long been one of the most loyal. That makes him ineligible for many, despite his role on January 6. And those for whom that sets him apart? So far, they’ve barely had any reason not to vote for Trump right away.

Ultimately, Pence doesn’t take his Trump opposition too seriously. When CNN host Dana Bash repeatedly asked if he could rule out supporting Trump if his party chose him as a primary candidate, the former vice president said only that he didn’t think Trump would eventually do that: “I have great confidence in the Republican voters.” That will hardly be enough.

This article was first published on Zeit Online. Watson may have changed the headings and subheadings. Here’s the original.