If Vice President Mike Pence is not planning for the possibility that he will be running for re-election in 2020 without Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, he is an idiot. If he does not deny it with every fiber of his being, lest he incur the wrath of supreme narcissist in chief Donald, he is also an idiot.
Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday issued a pointed response rebutting a New York Times report that he is among several Republicans gearing up for a White House run in 2020 in case President Donald Trump doesn’t seek re-election.
In a statement to reporters, Pence characterized the story as “fake news” and “disgraceful and offensive.” He also termed it “laughable and absurd.”
Donald Trump is so prickly about his underlings getting more attention than he is that he sidelined adviser Steve Bannon after Steve Bannon got his picture on a magazine cover. Just imagine what Trump would do if he found out a member of the White House was running to replace him.
Pence probably wouldn't be allowed back in the building.
National talk of a Pence "shadow campaign" to step in if Donald Trump is for some reason too tired or too impeached or too seeking-asylum-in-a-Russian-embassy to run for a second term is certainly advantageous to Mike Pence. He has tried his level best to dodge the limelight while his running mate churns through his daily regimen of ridiculous decisions and pronouncements; the only times we ever seem to hear from the man are when he's affirming that he didn't know about this or that potential crime that apparently everyone else in the building was aware of before him, or when he's hosting this or that event for Republican luminaries.
Mr. Pence has been the pacesetter. Though it is customary for vice presidents to keep a full political calendar, he has gone a step further, creating an independent power base, cementing his status as Mr. Trump’s heir apparent and promoting himself as the main conduit between the Republican donor class and the administration.
Ah, the administration "conduit" for the Republican "donor class." No matter what you may think of Pence, you have to marvel at the courage of a man willing to wedge himself between Donald Trump and other people's wallets—it's a bit like positioning yourself between an alligator and 50 pounds of raw chicken. At some point Trump is going to find out Mike Pence has been meeting with rich people behind his back and all hell will break loose in the Oval Office.
So the ever-ambitious Mike Pence is (and he would tell you that all of this is merely coincidental) both regularly meeting with prospective donors and simultaneously professing to not knowing much of what's going on in the scandal-ridden, incompetence-riddled Trump administration at all. Those will be the two key attributes for any Republican seeking to run for the presidency in 2020, so it's certainly fortunate for Mike Pence that he happens to be, you know, doing that.