It's not clear if it's coincidence or plan that saw both White House Inhabitant Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence filling up television time this Sunday; perhaps even this White House knew that trying to defend a new potential war with the likes of Kellyanne Conway would be a bit much, and Sarah Sanders has been a short-timer for months.
Maybe it was just time for Mike Pence to degrade himself again. The Jesus-punching faux Christian has lined himself up with Trump more than he lined himself up with anything in the Bible. Appearing on CNN to be queried by State of the Union host Jake Tapper, Pence did his beady-eyed best to avoid saying anything of substance about the crowded, filthy, and negligent conditions of the administration's refugee detention centers.
Asked about the Trump administration arguing to a federal judge that interned children did not need toothbrushes or soap—materials that prisoners of war would be entitled to, but asylum-seeking children are apparently not—Pence would only demur. "I can't speak to what that lawyer was saying."
But, Pence continued, it was Democrat's fault for not giving Trump free rein (and cash) to expand the camps as he has demanded. For lo, as Jesus told his disciples: Not my problem.
Pence's ability to stuff himself into whatever rhetorical laundry bag Trump demands continues to be remarkable. He dully repeated Trump's new characterizations of why Trump ordered, than counter-ordered, an attack on Iranian assets after somebody in the chain of command just happened to mention only after the planes were in the air that the thing Trump just ordered them to do would likely kill at least 150 people. That didn't come up before approving the strike? Slipped everybody's mind?
Bullshit. Unadulterated bullshit. We can only speculate, for now, on why Trump called off the attack, but the odds are far more likely that the man balked after stern words from Vladimir Putin or whichever Fox host-slash-secret-adviser he happened to call first with the news than for the military officials briefing Trump to accidentally omit the "how many people will this kill" estimations when presenting strike options.
Mind you, if the story was that military officers told him those casualty numbers immediately but Trump was too distracted and inattentive for it to lodge in his head, now that is believable. Short term memory loss can be a hell of a thing.
In any event, Mike Pence must be pleased as punch with the policies he's been able to put in place while Trump is off golfing or yelling things at his television. Anti-LGBT policies, faux-religious "freedom" edicts; the man is ticking off his list. And all it requires is for him to sell his dignity and his so-called faith both in service of one of the most repulsive figures to ever slide slickly through the White House halls.
