Former Vice President Mike Pence, at a recent Gridiron Dinner, spoke forcefully against his former boss Donald Trump: “History will hold Donald Trump accountable for January 6. . . . What happened that day was a disgrace, and it mocks decency it in any other way. President Trump was wrong. his reckless word endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day.”
Yet, when called upon to testify under oath, first by House January 6 committee and then by the Justice Department, he excused himself, claiming some legislative and then executive prerogatives that got him off the hook. This is the kind of cowardice that proves Mike Pence would be unsuitable as President of the United States.
Unfortunately the field of candidates offered by the Republican Party shares the same lack of backbone that Pence demonstrated over four years in office. Nikki Haley, who held the former President responsible for January 6 and critiqued her boss on his distancing from NATO, gave Trump a free pass in her recent book With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace.
She lavished the President with praise, explaining his strategy in complimenting Russian President Vladimir Putin as a maneuver intended to keep communication open. Talking to NBC during her book tour, she spoke positively about Trump: “In every instance I dealt with him, he was truthful, he listened and he was great to work with,” she said. https://time.com/6252040/nikki-haley-donald-trump-relationship-history/
In his new book The Courage to Be Free, Ron DeSantis has praised former US president Donald Trump for his “unique star power”, derision of the media as “the enemy of the American people” and decisive role in helping DeSantis win election as a state governor.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/22/ron-desantis-book-the-courage-to-be-free-donald-trump
Each of these candidates can claim to have once been ardent supporters of Trump, yet will seek to run against him in the Republican Primary Election for President. One signal that Pence is about to declare his candidacy is his unusually brusque criticism of the ex-President at the Gridiron Club on Saturday, March 11. Until recently Pence has never mentioned how his life was put at risk by the President’s incendiary statements on January 6, 2021.
Presidents can not have it both ways. Leadership means speaking out definitively about what happened on January 6 and what Russia is doing in the Ukraine. There can be no flip-flopping once you are in office. That is why I have no faith in the professed and unprofessed candidates from the Republican Party. They have a lot of authoritative quotes to walk back just to enter the race.
On this basis alone there are not too many Republicans qualified to be President. Rep. Liz Cheney is one, because she committed political suicide to serve on the January 6 Committee, because she fervently believed the U.S. Constitution and the government itself was under attack on January 6. She has never said otherwise.
Senator Mitt Romney would be another qualified candidate, because he looked daggers at Sen Josh Hawley as he spoke in favor of reconsidering the authoritative vote of the American people on January 6. Romney put his political future in jeopardy by becoming one of Trump’s most outspoken critics.
Another would be Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, who retired from the Senate this fall. In an exit interview he said to PBS reporter Steve Inskeep: You don’t lie to the American people, and that’s what’s been going on. The American people have been lied to, chiefly by Donald Trump, and lies have consequences, and those consequences are now found in five dead Americans and a Capitol building that’s in shambles. https://www.npr.org/2023/01/04/1146866288/an-exit-interview-with-outgoing-republican-sen-ben-sasse-of-nebraska.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) was one of seven Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump at the second impeachment trial. Cassidy has never failed to speak his conscience in the House and recently declared he would not support Trump in 2024.
“President Trump is the first president, in the Republican side at least, to lose the House, the Senate and the presidency in four years,” Cassidy told Axios last fall.
“But it’s clear you ain’t voting for him,” Axios’s Mike Allen said to Cassidy.
“I’m not,” the senator responded.
There may be others who have been less visible for the last six years who may enter the Republican fray, but these three Senators, along with Rep. Liz Cheney, have been right in the frontline of the battle. They have showed courage when their colleagues have shown cowardice. They would deserve the nomination.
Running for Congress is one thing: you get to represent your district for two years, and they can toss you out in the twinkling of an eye. Running for President is quite another. You become the representative of an entire nation for four years, and you must wrangle with the likes of unprincipled scoundrels like Kevin McCarthy to get his Party to support a bill. That takes diplomacy and courage, a rare combination we saw in Ronald Reagan and now Joe Biden. Other remarkable Presidents have failed at one of these qualities.
So far we have not seen Republican candidates for President with the courage of their convictions.