The AP reported that on Friday evening at an RNC party in New Orleans, Pence told donors there is no room in the party for "apologists for Putin," or for focusing on the 2020 election loss.
These are two blows aimed directly at Donald Trump's face.
Trump continually praises the Russian president as "smart" and "genius" as he invades Ukraine and never shuts up about his election defeat in 2020.
“Where would Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom? There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin,” Pence said.
Trump has repeatedly told his followers and the country that if Pence had done his bidding, they could have easily and illegally overthrown the 2020 election.
Pence said, “My fellow Republicans, we can only win if we are united around an optimistic vision for the future based on our highest values. We cannot win by fighting yesterday’s battles, or by relitigating the past.”
Pence has previously stated publicly that he and Trump will never see "eye to eye" over the insurrection.
What we do know from the excellent investigating by the Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection is that Trump knew he'd lost, and still activated a plot to spit on his oath of office and try to seize power illegally after'd he lost by almost 8 million votes.
The NATO part of Pence's speech is important, because the world saw how Trump tried to destroy the entire NATO alliance during his tenure at the White House.
Howie Klein writes this about Pence.
Pence's career had faltered and he was sinking when Trump brought him aboard in 2016, primarily to help him capture Pence's strongest base-- dumber-than-shit white evangelicals. The problem is that that demographic has entirely abandoned Pence for Trump and that evangelicals are the most pro-Putin/anti-American demographic in the country.
Despite all his anti-Choice, anti-LGBTQ palaver, Pence is no longer their hero; Trump and Putin are because-- at their core-- evangelicals worship authoritarianism and would prefer being told what to do by a "higher authority" than trying to use the critical thinking that they don't possess (Buy Bull schools) to make decisions on their own. Extreme religionists in general-- not just evangelicals-- fit this pathetic mold.
Christian nationalism has become a detriment to this nation.
Trump is not one of them, but he's all too happy to lead them by their noses for political power and ego-maniacal worship that they are all to willing to give the narcissistic wretch.
