Today Vice President Mike Pence, who has been doing his level best to dodge being seen as the sort of extremist who would partner with Donald J. Trump to unwind American civil rights and public norms, is appearing at a fundraiser for America First Policies, a pro-Trump "nonprofit" whose most prominent voice was recently outed by reporters as a loudmouth with a history of "racist, sexist, anti-Muslim and anti-gay remarks" as a far-right radio host.
Higbie said on his radio show in 2013 and 2014 that "the black race" has "a lax of morality" and that black women "think that breeding is a form of employment." Higbie also said, "I believe wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly, that the black race as a whole, not totally, is lazier than the white race, period." [...]
On Twitter Sunday, Higbie said he stood by comments he had made that 75% of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder were faking it. He later deleted that tweet and wrote instead, "I deleted my post on #veterans and #PTSD not because I backed away from it but b/c it is hard to articulate the depth of the issue in 200 or so characters."
The vice president can't claim he doesn't know ex-Navy SEAL Carl Higbie's history perfectly well; Higbie resigned from his Trump-appointed administration post last January due to these very revelations. Nonetheless, Pence and the Trump administration continue to embrace him, and Pence continues to fundraise for Higbie's group.
We know how this is going to go, at this point. While CNN could not get a comment from Mike Pence's office, it is absolutely certain that when he is confronted with a question as to why he is funding for a purveyor of bigotry and hate, Mike Pence will do his wee little smile and claim he had no idea there was any controversy surrounding the man who resigned his administration post in scandal. He was out of the loop, he will say. He hasn't been keeping up with the news, he will say. He thought the fundraiser was for some other group, possibly for an orphanage or kitten adoption center, he will say.
Because if there's anything we've learned from Mike Pence, the Holiest man in the White House, is that he knows nothin' about nothin', when the chips are down. He has had his head in a sack for the entire duration of the administration, he will tell federal investigators as the walls close in around his immediate superior and he begins measuring the Oval Office drapes. And certainly, certainly he had no idea that the Trump/Pence administration and the outside groups working to support the Trump/Pence administration were filled with bigots, crooks and hate figures.
And tonight, he'll be raising funds for one of those far-right figures. Again. As he has, repeatedly. It's enough to make a person wonder what kind of person Mike Pence really is.