a sane person would wear a mask in a hospital even if he did not wear one anywhere else.
Pants didn’t fear catching COVID - or maybe he’s assured of a ticket to heaven and thus needn’t be a decent human being. He obviously just doesn’t give a shit if others sicken and die because he’s infected them. The psychopathology is glaring.
My theory is that Pence is 60 years old and looks to be in pretty good shape. Donald Trump is 73 and. . . does not look to be in pretty good shape.
Pence deliberately exposes himself to coronavirus, guessing/hoping that he won’t be seriously affected. He leans in close to Trump in conversation, voila! 14-28 days later, instant President.
Trump generally only dumps people for two reasons. 1) scandal at a level that so bad that it actually lowers the reputation of his administration (generally done early on before people accepted obvious corruption as the new normal) or perceived lack of loyalty. Pence keeps his not pretty clean, and has shown no interest in being anything other than a sycophantic yes-man, so I don’t see any reason Trump would dump him.
Might provocateurs try to manufacture a reason with a little disinfo campaign? Counterfeit notes disparaging the orange terror; deep-fake clips of the Veep’s funny faces behind Tramp’s back; leaked Pants-Putin emails discussing What Comes Next. Anything to push a presidential paranoia button. Tramp is even skittier than Nixxon was. (That’s a pun on Exxon.) Spread enough rumors and it’s sayonara, Pantsy.
All the more reason to think he will do it. Apparently he is really upset over the polls, and blaming his re-election team.
There’s talk of this every time that a president is running for reelection but it has pretty much become a tradition that it is not done. Something like it makes you look weak, that you didn’t get it right the first time or that your administration is lacking because of the performance of the VP. Nope, the reelection message is for any president that all is wonderful and the team will continue to lead.
I realized Trump can dump Pence and pick a woman who is also popular with Christians, there are plenty of those around. For example Michelle Bachmann who went to Oral Roberts law school (which no longer exists)
So, is The Vanilla From Wasilla still available?
Dumping Pence would backfire bigly. I’d be stunned as hell if he did it.
Trump will win or lose based on absolutely nothing Pence does, and based on everything Trump does (or doesn’t do).
What Trump wants is a place in the history books and to build a dynasty. I could see him dumping Pence and putting Ivanka in as his VP . The rabid followers would eat that up. Really stick it to the libs. He would have the first female VP, his convention would have tv ratings through the roof. If he loses in November with that ticket I could see him resigning to make her the first female President.
Trump cannot fire the VP and any replacement would have to be confirmed by both houses of Congress. He can dump Pence as the VP candidate and select Ivanka but she cannot become President unless they win the election.
While I have a healthy respect for Trump’s level of crazy none of this is going to happen. Pence will almost certainly be the VP candidate.
Reviving this thread to ask the question again, now that Biden has selected Kamala Harris as his veep. 45* must know he’s struggling in the polls. Would he and his handlers think dumping Pence for Nikki Haley would peel off enough Indian-Americans to make a difference? Plus Haley’s a woman, blunting the historic glass-ceiling shattering effect of Harris?
He’d have to persuade Pence to pretend he’s enthusiastic or at least okay about it, of course, to keep the evangelical bloc happy. Or maybe Mike could discover his health requires him to retire from public life.
Maybe this is silly speculation, or maybe not. This year has been so full of “WTF just happened?” already, I just have no firm sense of reality other than “Trump delenda est.”
Why would he do that and offend every male in America?
LOL – but Nikki is more attractive-looking than Kamala, so maybe the Palin sexdoll effect would make up for that?
Hard disagree.
Pence draws in religious voters, Trump’s base. Trump has been married three times and had numerous affairs and is on the receiving end of numerous allegations of sexual assault. I think Trump would lose some evangelical support if he dumped Pence. (Jerry Falwell Jr. got dumped recently for behavior that is far more tame than anything Trump has been accused of.)
Does Nikki Haley want to be Trump’s vice president? She served under Trump for a while, and like so many of his top officials, found a reason to get out of there.
Trump really could not select a new vice president after his convention later this month. Does he even have time? (Not that this has stopped Trump before.)
Many women vote for Trump, and they have numerous reasons for doing so. They’re not supporting him because he’s a misogynist, and selecting a female vice president would make no difference to their support. Many support him due to their religious beliefs (so dumping Pence would cost Trump some of their support).
I watched Pence speaking at an event broadcast on c-span today. There’s something quite amusing how he pauses and leans into the microphone to make some bold proclamation. In this case it was that he and Trump will protect your right to meat unlike Biden and Harris!
No change. She very deliberately left the Trump administration on good terms when she did to separating her brand from Trump without offending his supporters.