Donald Trump just threw Mike Pence under the bus in the Ukraine whistleblower scandal
Donald Trump held a press conference this afternoon about his own impeachment, which was historically deranged in nature. Half the time, no one could figure out what he was even talking about. He rambled incoherently about his imaginary border wall, his imaginary poll numbers, and more. But at one point he delivered a certain message very clearly: please take Mike Pence down.
While Donald Trump was reading from his prepared notes, he urged the media to demand that the transcripts be released of Mike Pence’s phone calls with the president of Ukraine. Then, for emphasis, he circled back a bit later and made the request again. Trump really, really, really wants Pence’s role in this Ukraine scandal to be exposed. The question is why.
Is Donald Trump trying to take Mike Pence down with him out of pure spite, or is there an actual strategy here? Perhaps Trump thinks that if he can drag Pence into this scandal, then it’ll take some of the heat off himself. Or maybe Trump figures that if Pence is also destroyed by this, Congress might be less inclined to oust Trump, because Pence would also have to resign, and we’d be in a constitutional crisis.
It’s difficult to say what’s going on inside the completely deranged and largely depleted mind of Donald Trump at this point. But by urgently steering the media toward the transcripts of Mike Pence’s phone calls with the president of Ukraine, and even revealing that there are multiple such calls, there’s no question that Trump is trying to drag Pence squarely into this scandal.
