Nice try, Mike Pence
Now that the Trump-Russia scandal is closing in on everyone involved, each of the key players is handling it differently. Donald Trump is alternating between berserk bombastic meltdowns and disappearing for days, only to turn up slurring his words. Donald Trump Jr is suddenly trying to humanize himself on social media. Jared Kushner is trying to hurry up with his political endgame. Then there’s Mike Pence, who seems to think he’s a lot more clever than he is.
In the ten days since Michael Flynn cut a plea deal, we’ve been reminded that Mike Pence bent over backwards to lie on Flynn’s behalf in the name of covering up the Trump-Russia scandal and sabotaging the investigation. There’s a legal term for that: obstruction of justice. It’s since leaked out that Flynn informed the entire transition team about his conspiratorial antics with Russia in real time. Pence was the head of that transition team. Are we to believe that they all conspired to keep it from him? Of course not. So how has Pence been handling his elevated role in the scandal?
Pence has responded by saying and doing nothing. It’s not that Pence has gone into total seclusion. He popped up, for instance, at the Naval Observatory yesterday and posted about it on social media. He dutifully stood by Trump’s side during the Jerusalem announcement, because people would have asked questions if he hadn’t been there. But apart from making the requisite periodic public appearances so that no one places his picture on the back of a milk carton, he’s making no effort to defend himself in the Trump-Russia scandal, even though it’s becoming more clear by the day that he’s going to face criminal charges over it. He’s offered no explanation for why he lied to the American people about Michael Flynn.
Mike Pence seems to think that if he keeps laying low, the tidal wave of justice that wipes out Donald Trump’s White House will somehow miss him in the process. There’s no chance of that. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has already demonstrated that he’s going to turn over every rock in the Trump-Russia scandal, and prosecute everyone who committed any sort of crime. Pence can lay low all he wants. Mueller knows where to find him when the time comes.
