JULY 15, 2016
Photo: Getty
The photo op was all set to roll.
The biggest guessing game in Republican politics was about to come to a conclusion when news reports confirmed on Thursday that presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump had selected Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his Vice-Presidential running mate. The 57-year-old governor was already said to be in Trump’s final three, along with two men with outsized personalities – former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Pence was spotted arriving a private plane in New York on Thursday afternoon in expectation of the big Trump announcement.
Then Nice happened.
On Thursday night during a fireworks celebration for Bastille Day along the Promenade des Anglais, a terrorist gunman drove a truck through a large crowd, plowing down scores of people, killing 84 and injuring many more. Following an exchange of gunfire with police, he was shot dead.
The terrorist attack and its death toll prompted Trump to postpone his Friday announcement to another time, a very tasteful gesture but one that gave the showman a few extra days to wring the last drop of suspense from his pick. In fact, on Thursday night, Trump even called into Fox News to deny that he has made “a final, final decision,” even as Pence was getting off his plane.
But on Friday morning, via a tweet (of course), Trump announced that Pence is indeed his choice, and that the big official announcement will now occur at a New York news conference on Saturday. This gives journalists a little extra time to weigh the selection of Pence, who brings both pluses and minuses to the Trump campaign.
The big draw for Trump is that Pence has extensive experience in Washington, a skill that Trump desperately needs in order to get his huge plans through Congress. As a 6-term Congressman, Pence was a party leader and made many important Republican friends on Capitol Hill, alliances that will come in very handy when trying to convince former colleagues to support Trump’s agenda.
Second, Pence is a respected social conservative. I mean “Bible-studies-on-Capitol-Hill” kind of social conservative. And for Trump, whom social conservatives distrust after an early interview that he’d occasionally go to church for the wine and “the cracker,” Pence can attest to Trump’s conservative bona fides and calm jittery right-wingers.
Third, Pence won’t overshadow Trump. Let’s face it, Newtie has a propensity for making headlines and Christie has a habit of telling his many protesters to “Sit down and shut up.” There’s only one star in The Donald Trump Show, and Pence will be insurance that it’s only going to be Trump.
But there are some downsides to the selection of Pence. Some very big downsides.
His social conservatism, so appealing to right wingers who have doubts about Trump, will make for a big fat juicy target for Democrats and, I suspect, most independents. For example, Pence was an early and ardent foe of Planned Parenthood and is so anti-choice that earlier this year, he signed a bill in Indiana that forces any woman who undergoes an abortion to pay for the funeral of the aborted fetus. (You read that right.) But wait, there’s more.
Pence is probably most famous nationally for his botched attempt last year to enact the famed anti-LGBT Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which gave Christian storeowners the right to deny services to any gay person. The outcry was swift and loud — even the National Football League came down hard on Pence — and the governor, after a notorious press conference where he said nothing and looked shell-shocked for the entire first minute, watered down the law, thus enraging evangelicals who called him a sellout.
With both sides angry with him, Pence’s reputation in Indiana took a hit from which he never recovered. He was facing an uphill battle for reelection this fall and is probably very relieved that the Trump pick now allows him to withdraw from the governor’s race. (Indiana Republicans are probably relieved as well.)
The biggest problem for the new Trump/Pence marriage is that Pence simply disagrees with Trump on so many issues. Pence has publicly condemned Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims, calling it “unconstitutional.” On trade, Pence is for the Trans-Pacific Partnership; Trump is against it. And in the Indiana primary earlier this year, Pence backed Sen. Ted Cruz over Trump.
Can this marriage be saved? Who cares. But if you’re a woman and/or gay & lesbian, you should be very worried about the selection of Pence, because if by some chance, Trump wins and Pence has his way, life in these United States may soon become very very different and very very difficult.
