When Trump chose Mike Pence as his VP, I thought that Pence was a good choice (and it made a funny “Trumpence” sound). By all accounts he was a seasoned Christian man, he guarded his marriage by not having a meal alone with another woman and, as governor of Indiana, he seemed to have done an adequate job.
But ever since the events of January 6 and its aftermath, when Pence refused to challenge the results of the 2020 election even though there was plenty of evidence of fraud, he has revealed himself to be more of an establishment figure.
One thing we don’t need right now is an establishment figure.
Fortunately, Pence did us all a favor and deep-sixed whatever minimal chance he might have had as a candidate.
But even though Tucker emerged as one of the stars of the evening, the show was not about him but about that clutch of GOP hopefuls. Who among that gang of six won?
It’s probably easier to start with the loser, chief among whom was Mike Pence, who might just as well have used the occasion to perform an act of self-immolation. The key moment came in an exchange about foreign policy, in particular U.S. policy with respect to the war in Ukraine. Pence said he was distressed that we had yet to send Ukraine the promised Abrams tanks or train Ukrainian pilots to fly F16s.
“You are distressed,” said Tucker, “that the Ukrainians don’t have enough American tanks. Every city in the United States has become much worse in the last three years. . . .and yet your concern is that the Ukrainians . . . don’t have enough tanks? Where’s the concern in the United States in that?”
“Well, that’s not my concern. Tucker, I’ve heard that routine from you before, but that’s not my concern.”
“Not my concern.”
Bang. “Not my concern.”
While Mollie Hemingway was generous in her critique of the comment, that phrase is going to haunt Pence for the remainder of his campaign. It was not at all clear what was “not” Pence’s concern, but it sure sounded like it was America and its problems, rather than a proxy war in which we have almost no vested interest.
My take on it is that whether he was referring to our support of the war in Ukraine or he was referring to the sad state of American cities, saying that either is “not my concern” is a rather stunning backhand to the question.
And Carlson is no slouch — he was direct with all the candidates who sat with him in the forum.
Carlson is free to ask difficult questions since he is not working for the establishment media. He lost his evening TV show because his populist questions prompted Fox’s establishment board to shut him down, despite the resulting huge loss of viewers.
By the way, Fox News aired their “new and improved” lineup last night of Ingram, Watters, Hannity and Gutfeld. Do they really think that rearranging the deck chairs is going to save this sinking ship? More to the point, do they even care?
In fact, Carlson has a pocketbook and a ratings incentive to keep the pressure on politicians. Millions of ordinary Americans have given up on the establishment’s media coverage of the establishment’s political priorities. That popularity was made clear the next day when Carlson spoke at the TPUSA Conference in Florida:
[…]
Several of the politicians stared daggers at Carlson — and the leading candidate refused to sit in the hot seat.
That’s what I find refreshing about Carlson — he seems to be fearless and isn’t interested in soft focus interviews. That’s also what I found refreshing about Trump: he didn’t play the game — he disrupted it. That’s what Tucker is doing — disrupting the “normal” routine we’re used to seeing with political figures.
If the participants thought this was going to be another tongue bath, they were certainly surprised. He asked hard questions, and some of their answers exposed their muddled thinking. At least two of them – Asa Hutchinson and Mike Pence — were clear losers and can now be safely considered out of the running.
For what it’s worth, of all the candidates not named Trump, I currently like Ramaswamy and DeSantis.
