At the same time, there’s no denying that there is likely a self-serving reason we know these stories at all it’s hard to be a hero if there’s no narrator to tell the tale.Donald Trump Tasos Katopodis/Getty Imagesįormer Vice President Mike Pence reportedly "lost it" and "snarled" at former President Donald Trump in 2018 after getting a crumpled up newspaper article thrown at him.Ī new piece in The Wall Street Journaladapted from reporter Michael Bender's book Frankly, We Did Win This Election describes the conflict that arose between Trump and Pence in early 2021 when the vice president was set to preside over the certification of the election results. The better angels of their nature won out over selfishness and vanity. Despite his treatment at the hands of the political system, Quayle defended it during a time of peril. In a way, it’s better to read books like “Peril” less as history and more as literature and find inspiration and meaning in their half-truth reflections on life.ĭespite his ambivalence, Pence forswore ambition for the good of the country. We want stories and characters that are one-dimensional and moral choices cast in black and white. Then again, that desire for easy answers is part of why people like Trump are so appealing to the masses. There aren’t many gimmes in politics, especially at the presidential level. Certifying the election results should have been an easy choice for someone dedicated to public service.
But the fact that he was even looking for an out is a problem. Listening to Quayle meant shelving any chance of winning over Trump’s more rabid fans, effectively shutting the door on his own presidential run. Meanwhile, Pence’s legacy has grown more complicated. No matter who gave them the story, it serves as a particularly fascinating postscript and recasts the former punchline as a beacon of moral resolve. That leaves Quayle, or at least someone close enough to Quayle to have passed it on to Woodward and Costa. I don’t have access to “Peril,” which makes it even more difficult for me to guess who may have provided this particular anecdote, but the unflattering portrayal of Pence rules him out in my mind. And in doing so, Biden’s win was - once the Capitol was cleared of insurrectionists - certified as it had been every other presidential election beforehand. Together, as Politico's Kyle Cheney showed on Twitter, they crafted language that made clear that there would be no chance for alternate electoral slates from states such as Georgia to vote for Trump. You have no power."Īnd Pence did just that: He listened to the Senate parliamentarian. "I do know the position you're in," Quayle responded. "You don't know the position I'm in," he said, according to the authors. Quayle was unmoved, and Pence ultimately agreed, according to the book.ĬNN’s version added some additional detail to Pence’s entreaty: Put it away,” he said.īut Pence pressed him, the authors write, asking if there were any grounds to pause the certification because of ongoing legal challenges. Quayle was adamant, according to the authors.
#MIKE PENC GOOD CHOICE HOW TO#
It makes sense that Pence called Quayle when deciding how to respond to Trump’s demands.Ĭosta and Woodward report that Pence rang up Quayle in late December to ask if there was any way he could give Trump want he wanted, according to the Washington Post:
A vice president from Indiana, Quayle was a younger conservative brought onto the ticket to bolster the bona fides of a presidential candidate whose own record was less than impressive to some on the right. He had to be guided to it by an unlikely source: former Vice President Dan Quayle who reportedly told Pence he had no option but to do his job. Pence didn’t come to his heroism naturally. However, that narrative became more complicated this week with the release of the first excerpts from “Peril,” the forthcoming book from reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The former congressman from Indiana had earlier that day rejected President Donald Trump’s demands that he abdicate his duty as vice president and refuse to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 election win over Trump.įor fulfilling his duty, Pence has been hailed as a hero in the by some members of the media. All because Pence had refused to do what his boss had asked. Security video later showed how close the mob had come to obstructing Pence and his family’s flight to safety. Crowds outside chanted for him to be hanged on the makeshift scaffolding they’d constructed outside the Capitol building. Former Vice President Mike Pence was in real danger on Jan.
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