Wait, Mike Pence said what about Donald Trump?
Donald Trump’s calamitous and deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria has made such a mess that even Lindsey Graham is working with Democrats to try to stop him, and it’s vastly accelerating the pace of Trump’s downfall. Now, in a weird development, Mike Pence is inserting himself into the mix.
This evening NBC News reported that Mike Pence said that Donald Trump called the leader of Turkey and asked him to cease the invasion of Kurdish territory in Syria. Wait a minute, what? Trump seemed to be a bump on a log at this point, sitting around and fuming incoherently while he’s waiting to be finished off. So we’re not shocked if it turns out that Pence had to push Trump into making this phone call. But why is Pence the one announcing it?
Mike Pence is clearly trying to frame himself as the hero of the day, by making it look like he’s the one who got Donald Trump to reverse course. Pence is trying to make himself look presidential, while making Trump look like he’s a waffling dysfunctional idiot.
There are a thousand ways Mike Pence could have let the media know that Donald Trump is trying to fix his Syria mess. Pence chose the one way – attaching his own name to the story – that makes Trump look bad in the process. We suspect Pence knows Trump is on his way out, and Pence is trying to paint himself as being suitable to finish out the rest of the term. Nice try. Pence is going down for the Ukraine scandal too.
