With Wednesday’s speech, the vice president showed he is finally all in on Trump.
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On Wednesday, in a somnolent speech to a crowd of supporters without face coverings on the third night of the Republican National Convention, Pence pressed that disguise into service for Donald Trump. All week, Republicans have swerved between showcasing the minor celebrities of the MAGA diaspora (Charlie Kirk, Ric Grenell, Lara Trump) who thrill Trump’s hardcore supporters, and parading out conspicuously non-Trumpian figures (immigrants, people of color, women, medical professionals on the frontline battling Covid-19) intended to reframe the president as more likable, empathetic, moderate and accomplished — especially to those coveted suburban swing voters who have abandoned him.
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And so in 2020 Pence, who as vice president can go long stretches without ever being heard from, was again front and center last night making the argument that Trump the caricature and Trump the president are two different people.
“I’ve seen him when the cameras are off,” Pence said, suggesting that behind the scenes, and contrary to the accounts of dozens of former administration officials, Trump is not like that.
Putting aside the merits of Pence’s character assessment of Trump, his argument for a second term on Wednesday night was the best distillation of what the GOP is trying to accomplish this week. First he laid out the best case possible for the Trump administration’s achievements: an improved military (he “created the Space Force”), a (once) roaring economy, the defeat of ISIS, a reformed Department of Veterans Affairs, the Senate approval of more than 200 federal judges.
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In Pence’s telling, this glowing record was then undercut by the coronavirus pandemic, which is true. The portion of his speech where things get very foggy is his discussion of the response to the pandemic. There is a recitation of some of the actions taken, heartfelt sympathy for the victims of the disease, paeans to health-care workers, and a promise to open up the country and bring back the old Trump economy. But there was no acknowledgment that the pandemic still rages on and no details of a plan to stop it.
Instead, Pence changed the subject.
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A similar question about Pence’s devotion to Trumpism has always hung over Pence’s vice presidency. But last night Pence proved that MAGA is not just something that he wears on his head. He also wears it in his heart.
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