This is just ugly for Donald Trump and Mike Pence
It’s one thing for there to be an embarrassing gaffe or reckless plan a politician makes regardless of what party they happen to belong to – it usually doesn’t affect their political careers all that much. Most of the time, the average person forgets about a week or so after the news cycle is over. Even with Donald Trump, there’s at least five or six scandals that probably happened over his presidency that you likely don’t remember. People do tend to remember, however, when there are pictures. That’s why people remember the Trump era’s draconian immigration policies, or his attempt to use the military on peaceful protesters in Washington, DC – as there are iconic images that sum up the moment in dark and disturbing ways.
While we have numerous still images of the January insurrection, we don’t have all that many showing the reactions of Republican politicians on public record, but that may soon be about to change. According to ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl, there are pictures of Mike Pence hiding in a parking garage as angry right-wingers stormed the Capitol, presenting a very real threat to the then-vice president’s life if they were to find him.
One picture shows Pence watching as Donald Trump responded to the attacks via Twitter and grimacing. At present, Pence is fighting to keep these pictures from surfacing before the committee, but the story they tell – combined with the fact that the former vice president’s staffers were locked out of their offices on the morning of January 6 – is a rather unsettling one.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making