How the Democrats will take Mike Pence down in flames
The demise of Donald Trump’s presidency is already being written. It’s just a matter of time before his crushing unpopularity, his increasing instability, your fierce resistance of him, and his exploding scandals prompt his ouster. The Republican Party can choose to oust him before the midterms to try to avoid getting wiped out, or it can sit on its hands and get wiped out. If it’s the latter, the Democratic majority will oust Trump just after the midterms. But the real underlying story here may be the demise of Mike Pence.
Last week we learned that before Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, he wrote a letter acknowledging he was doing it to try to shut down the Russia investigation (link). That’s an admission of obstruction of justice. Special Counsel Robert Mueller now has the letter. Moreover, it’s been confirmed that Mike Pence was involved in that discussion and knew all about the letter. At most Pence conspired to obstruct justice, a crime. At the least Pence was aware Trump was committing a felony and failed to report it, which is also a crime. So now what?
No matter how thoroughly Mueller ends up exposing the assorted crimes committed by Trump and Pence, their impeachment and removal is still a political process in Congress. The Republicans will throw Trump overboard if they feel they absolutely have to, because he’s turned out to be at least as much trouble as he’s worth. They’ll be loathe to remove Pence, because in their minds they still envision working with “President Pence” to pass the kind of corrupt legislation that they never could get done under the erratic Trump. But that’s not how this is going to work. Not even close.
Let’s say the GOP responds to Mueller’s damning conclusions by ousting Trump and installing Pence. That’s when the Democrats will immediately go to work painting Pence as Trump’s criminal co-conspirator. They’ll have the proof from Mueller’s investigation. They’ve also been hanging onto a transition period letter which proves Pence knew Michael Flynn was dirty when he went on television and covered for him (link). “President Pence” would assume office fully crippled by Trump’s scandalous demise, and from there the Democrats would set him aflame with his own role in the scandal. They’ll either end up ousting Pence or forcing him to play defense as the clock runs out on the remainder of the term.
