The duties of the vice presidency vary from administration to administration. It appears the duties of Vice President Mike Pence, however, will be precisely what they were on the campaign trail: Going on television to deny that the lunatic things coming from Donald Trump's mouth and thumbs mean anything at all. Principled and Serious Republican Mike Pence, everybody:
“Is it right for the President to say ‘so-called judge’?” asked Stephanopoulos. “Doesn’t that undermine the separation of powers in the Constitution, written right next door?”
“I don’t think it does,” said Pence. “I think the American people are very accustomed to this President speaking his mind, and speaking very straight with them.”
To expand on that a little, Donald Trump spent part of his weekend vacation blasting a "so-called judge" for restraining his administration's new and quite-probably-illegal travel ban with a series of tweets suggesting Donald Trump does not actually know that he is not singlehandedly in charge of deciding what's legal and what's not. Mike Pence's official Face The Nation response is to suggest that this is a refreshing move on the part of the president, whose furious sputtering ignorance is just par for our new American course.
Let's all imagine President Barack Obama belittling and blasting a federal judge in a weekend hissyfit. Now let's all the surging tide of Republicans all sprinting down the Capitol hallways in search of television cameras so they can praise the sitting president for tellin' it like it is. Yeah.
The vice president then acknowledged that the judiciary does, in fact, have the authority to order a halt on the Muslim ban.
Oh, thank God. Our American Democracy survives another weekend. But that was of course not the only Batshit Insane Thing our current Oval Office resident had to say this weekend. Trump also dismissed criticism of Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin for all those murders n' stuff, which required the very highest levels of Mike Pence pretending Donald Trump didn't say that thing we all very clearly heard.
"Moral equivalency?" Todd asked. "Is there a moral equivalency there? What was that, Mr. Vice President?"
"No, no, not in the least. Not in the least," Pence said. "What you're hearing there is a determination by the President of the United States to not let semantics or the arguments of the past get in the way of exploring the ability to work together with Russia and with President Putin in the days ahead."
It kept going like that. Mike Pence may have been the man Orwell based his book around.
"You know the Putin record here," Todd pressed. "What American leader has done something similar?"
"That's not, not what the President said in the least," Pence replied.
"Then why can't he say a negative thing about Vladimir Putin?" Todd asked.
"Well, he has expressed himself in the campaign, an election that he won, that he was determined to go forward and see whether or not we might be able to start anew in a relationship with Russia," Pence said.
Again we have to point out here that Donald Trump has systematically insulted or demeaned seemingly every person Donald Trump has ever come into contact with—except Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump spent the first phone calls of his presidency picking a fight with Australia. Russian forces spent days after those phone calls shelling another nation in direct violation of what Donald Trump vowed Russia would do once we got a "strong", "tough" leader in the White House, and Donald Trump hasn't said a peep about it.
"Are you comfortable with using those same words to describe Vladimir Putin?" Todd asked. "That basically, you know, yeah, he's a bad guy, but we've done some bad things too. Are you comfortable with that moral equivalency?"
"Again, I don't accept that it's a moral equivalency," Pence said. "I really don't."
And on and on and so forth. This is a man dedicated to the bit; whatever Donald Trump might say, Donald Trump forever and always means something totally different.
There will come a day when Mike Pence has no more kind words for Donald Trump. It will be the day Mike Pence gains the support of the rest of the White House and drafts a letter to Congress informing them that yes, the current Oval Office inhabitant is indeed batshit insane and a danger to the republic, upon which Mike Pence will take over the role of president as if he personally had nothing to do with helping to cover for—and sell to the nation—the actions the batshit insane person in the first place. As if he didn’t support the policies himself, and in public. As if he didn’t spend the entire campaign and presidency gaslighting for the administration’s most extreme and extraordinary acts.
Mike Pence imagines America will then greet him as a liberator.
Mike Pence will be wrong.