On Monday, Mike Pence praised Biden’s decision to end his presidential bid and called for national unity. Despite the normalcy of Pence’s rhetoric, MAGA posters immediately began blasting the former vice president for his supposed traitorousness.
“President Joe Biden made the right decision for our country and I thank him for putting the interests of our Nation ahead of his own,” Pence wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “After the assassination attempt on President Trump and President Biden’s decision to end his campaign, now is a time for leaders in both parties to project calm and send a message of strength and resolve to America’s friends and enemies alike that, whatever the state of our politics, the American people are strong and our American military stands ready to defend our freedom and our vital national interests anywhere in the world.”
The statement was a tame call for national unity albeit with some jingoism peppered in). Pence biographer Tom LoBianco called it “[r]emarkably normal given the tone of things.”
But since Pence has been a persona non grata in Trump world since his refusal to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, his post was flooded with replies deeming his banal call for civility further proof of his turncoat status.
The conservative interest group the Association of Mature American Citizens posted, “Praising Biden, pathetic.” Conservative commentator Joey Mannarino said, “This is why we consider you a traitor, Mike. Fuck off.” Various other MAGA accounts left comments like, “Judas Pence has spoken,” “You knew what was at risk by certifying a stolen election yet you did it anyway,” “We are only in this mess because of you, so shut the fuck up,” and so on.
The MAGA outrage over Pence’s quite ordinary statement reveals his own party’s limited appetite for the unity he espouses.
Source Agencies
