Even before the Jan. 6 attack, when Donald Trump endangered the life of then-Vice President Mike Pence, the Republican president had a habit of publicly embarrassing his right-hand man. The Hoosier went to great lengths to demonstrate unfailing loyalty, but to Trump it simply didn’t matter.
The president, of course, eventually replaced Pence with Vice President JD Vance, and history is already starting to repeat itself.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump occasionally contradicted the Ohio Republican, which did no good to Vance’s reputation, but literally on the first day of the Trump-Vance era the problem became more acute when the new president pardoned on January 6 granted to criminals. — including those who violently clashed with police officers at the U.S. Capitol.
And that, of course, was reminiscent of the public comments his vice president had made eight days earlier. The Associated Press reported on January 12:
Vice President-elect JD Vance says people responsible for the violence during the Capitol riot should “obviously” not be pardoned. … Vance emphasized in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that the pardon question is “very simple,” saying that those who “peacefully protested” should be pardoned and “if you committed violence on that day, you should obviously shouldn’t do that. forgive.’
This wasn’t the first time the Ohioan made such comments. In May, two months before the then-senator joined his party’s 2024 ticket, Vance told CNN: “If you beat up a cop, of course you deserve to go to jail. If you break the law, you have to face the consequences.”
Notice the unequivocal wording: As far as Vance is concerned, violent rioters who attacked police officers should “of course” be put behind bars. It’s hardly a topic of discussion: “It is clear” that such violent criminals and convicted felons should not receive a presidential pardon, the vice president said nine days ago.
This was, he told a national viewing audience, “very simple.”
It is not yet clear how the consultation process about Team Trump took place behind closed doors. Maybe Vance was offside. Perhaps he presented a case that the new president rejected. Perhaps he was told what position to take, and Trump changed his mind soon after.
Whatever the explanation, just hours into the Trump-Vance era, the new president hung his vice president out to dry. (This follows Vance investing some of his political capital in Matt Gaetz’s bid to become the next attorney general, personally escorting the former congressman from Senate office to Senate office, urging his colleagues to confirmation and risked his credibility. Shortly afterwards, the Florida Republican withdrew from consideration – and Trump agreed.)
While we wait for the vice president to explain why the president has made him look foolish (again), it’s also worth emphasizing that Vance isn’t alone in this. Quite a few Republican officials said they were willing to accept a Jan. 6 pardon for nonviolent offenders, but they weren’t entirely comfortable with the idea of Trump putting violent criminals who had attacked police back on the streets before their punishment was over.
It won’t be easy to get out of these comments, but since the alternative is criticizing the new president of their party, they will have to think of something.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com