Trump delayed announcing his choice when a terrorist driving a truck in Nice, France, on July 14, killed 86 people and injured 458. Pence and his team, however, circulated word that he was the choice. Among themselves, aides and friends debated whether Pence should accept. Two of Pence’s closest political friends, Ryan Streeter and Al Hubbard, decried Trump’s lack of principles and mean-spirited style and advised against joining the ticket. Pence, sensing his big chance was at hand, rejected their counsel. Finally, on Saturday, July 16, Trump made the announcement during an event at the New York Hilton Hotel. “I found the leader who will help deliver a safe society and a prosperous, really prosperous society for all Americans. Indiana governor Mike Pence was my first choice.”11
That phrasing—first choice—must have especially galled Christie, who admitted to disappointment. “Of course,” he told reporters a few days later at the Republican National Convention. “I don’t get into anything that I don’t want to win. So when you’re not picked, of course it’s disappointing. You know, I’ve been through this parade before, and I realize that it’s like getting hit by lightning.… So it didn’t happen, that’s fine … you get disappointed, you take a deep breath and you get ready for tomorrow.”12
For consolation, everyone figured—especially Christie—that if Trump won the election, Christie would be given an important post in the administration. The same was true for Michael Flynn, who vigorously supported Trump and would campaign for him throughout the summer and fall. Flynn became a highly controversial figure as he continued to make appearances on Trump’s behalf, crossing a political divide usually respected by members of the military.
Flynn was an accomplished, veteran intelligence officer. He had served with distinction in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade and had been appointed director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in 2012. It was in this job where his chaotic, confrontational management style became a serious problem. In 2014, two years into his tenure at the DIA, President Obama considered complaints from the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, and other professionals and decided that Flynn had to go.
Untethered, Flynn began advocating his own solution to geopolitical problems. He paid special attention to Syria, where he wanted the United States and Russia to cooperate in fighting the Islamic State. His willingness to speak openly won invitations to appear on the Qatar-based Al Jazeera Network and on RT—Russia Today, a Russian government–owned, English-language television network. In these appearances, Flynn avoided criticizing President Obama directly, focusing instead on issuing warnings about “radical Islam.” He came across as the kind of tough guy who appealed to Donald Trump. However, Flynn suffered from certain deficiencies as a public advocate. Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and chronicler of U.S. troubles in Afghanistan, said Flynn’s skills on the battlefield did not translate well into politics. “He was promoted above the level he was suited for when he was promoted to head the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is a big bureaucracy and really a Washington insider’s job. He had spent years on the battlefield; he was trained as a tactical intelligence leader, a door-kicker,” said Coll. “When he got fired at DIA during the Obama administration, I think it really infuriated him, and it set him off on a course which I can’t explain entirely, which is very different from who he was in the military.”13
Flynn’s overarching concern was the growth of ISIS, which he was ready to fight with methods others rejected, including torture and the killing of terrorists’ families. At the same time, Flynn criticized the Bush and Obama administrations for weakness in dealing with terrorism: “I think the narrative was that al Qaeda was on the run, and [Osama] bin Laden was dead.… They’re dead and these guys are, we’ve beaten them,” Flynn said—but the problem was that no matter how many terrorist leaders they killed, they “continue to just multiply.”14
When it came to domestic affairs, the newly minted angry private citizen Michael Flynn frequently criticized Hillary Clinton for the use of a private email server and said she should quit the presidential race. “If it were me,” said Flynn on CNN, “I would have been out the door and probably in jail.” He also criticized President Obama and his administration for not recognizing the danger represented by ISIS.
By mid-2016, Flynn had perfected his positions and his speaking style, and appeared regularly on television. At the GOP national convention in Cleveland, where he acted as a surrogate for Donald Trump, Flynn agreed to a live video interview with Michael Isikoff, the chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News. Isikoff focused less on Trump than on the general’s life as a private citizen and asked him about his travel to Moscow in 2015 to deliver a speech about U.S.-Russian relations. During the visit, Flynn sat next to Russian president Vladimir Putin at a dinner celebrating the creation of RT.
With the convention floor in the background, Isikoff asked why Flynn had agreed to sit with Putin at an event honoring a propaganda arm of the Russian government. Flynn had been caught off guard, and his angry response was unconvincing.
“Because I wanted to tell Russia to get Iran the hell out of the four proxy wars they’re involved in in the Middle East in order for us to settle the situation down,” he said, rambling on about a situation with which he had no official status—more than a year after he had left the Defense Intelligence Agency.
“Were you paid for that event?” Isikoff asked.
Flynn’s eyes drifted for an instant before he tried to answer.
“I … You’d have to my, uh … the folks I went over there to, to…” Flynn said, waving his hand in Isikoff’s direction.
“I’m asking you, you’d know if you were paid.”
“Yeah, I went over there. It was a speaking event, it was a speaking event.”
“And…”
“What difference does that make?”
“Well…”
“Is somebody gonna go, ‘Ooh, he’s paid by the Russians…’”
“Well, Donald Trump has made a lot of the fact that Hillary Clinton has taken a lot of money from Wall Street, Goldman Sachs—”
Flynn interrupted Isikoff, shaking his head, leaning back in his chair overlooking the convention floor.
“I didn’t take any money from Russia, if that’s what you’re asking me.”
“Then who paid you?”
“My … my speakers’ bureau. Ask them.”
“OK.”
“So I was given a great opportunity and I took it.”15
Eventually, it was disclosed that Flynn received $45,000 for the Russia trip and did not declare the funds on his government financial disclosure form. Flynn could only hope that the interview, which was conducted for the Yahoo website, would not be widely circulated.
When Flynn finally addressed the convention delegates, he assailed President Obama. “We are tired of Obama’s empty speeches and his misguided rhetoric,” he said. “This, this has caused the world to have no respect for America’s word, nor does it fear our might.” He then launched into a familiar attack on Hillary Clinton as all things evil in the world. At the mention of her name, Flynn joined in with the chants of the ardent convention-goers.
“Lock her up. Lock her up,” chanted the crowd.
“Damn right,” said Flynn. “Exactly right. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Flynn continued, adding, “You know why we’re saying that? We’re saying that because if I, a guy who knows this business, if I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today.”
A week after the convention, Flynn blamed Clinton’s campaign and Democrats in general for charges that Russians were hacking U.S. political sites. On the social media platform Twitter, he wrote, “The corrupt Democratic machine will do and say anything to get #NeverHillary into power. This is a new low.” He appended an anti-Semitic comment from a user named Sait Bibiana (@30PiecesofAG_): “Cnn implicated. ‘The USSR is to blame!’ … Not anymore, Jews. Not anymore.”
After his tweet, Flynn quickly
apologized and said his message was a mistake. Nevertheless, the incident supported the notion floated by Flynn’s critics that he was an impulsive figure. In August, he would show this trait again when he visited a synagogue in Massachusetts and said Islam “is a vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people on this planet and it has to be excised.” Flynn’s words signaled to extremist white supremacists known online as the “alt-right” that he was with them. It was also perfect material for radical Muslim propagandists who sought to recruit support and even would-be terrorists by claiming the United States was hostile to Islam and committed to a modern version of the Crusades.16
Compared with the fire-breathing Flynn, whom GOP stalwart and retired general Colin Powell called “right-wing nutty,” Mike Pence was the campaign’s voice of tempered reason. When he spoke at the convention, he fell into the role he had been assigned, praising the presidential candidate while reassuring conservative Christians that it was all right for them to put a foulmouthed, twice-divorced, political bomb-thrower into the Oval Office. After beginning with the trusty refrain that “I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order,” Pence reminded people of his long (and only) marriage to his wife, Karen, and described his children, Charlotte, Audrey, and Michael J. Pence, as “the three greatest kids in the world.” The state of Indiana and its Hoosiers came in for eight mentions, and he made the expected attacks on the opposition. But Pence’s main duty was to vouch for Trump, and he did, saying, “I’ve seen this good man up close, his utter lack of pretense, his respect for the people who work for him, and his devotion to his family.”
The GOP campaign would combine attacks on Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Virginia senator Tim Kaine, with declarations of support for various constituencies assumed to have suffered in recent years. Coal miners, factory workers, and others in the white working class were symbolic representatives of the Trump-Pence target voter, and they would be regarded as forgotten victims of Washington policies. “We have but one choice, and that man is ready,” said Pence. “This team is ready, our party is ready. And when we elect Donald Trump the forty-fifth president of the United States, together we will make America great again!”
Pence’s speech got rave reviews from the conservative press, and when the convention ended, he embarked on a fast-paced tour of the states where conservative Christians were key to the election. In the entire month of August, he visited only one Northeastern city, Manchester, New Hampshire, and never touched down on the West Coast. Instead, his itinerary took him to Iowa (five stops), Pennsylvania (five), and Ohio (four). Most of his events were in small- to medium-size cities. Compared with Trump’s raucous, stream-of-consciousness appearances where he lurched from the ridiculous to the profane but riveted both voters and the press, Pence was a conventional campaigner. He was so bland that when he appeared outside Toledo, Ohio, the local paper’s headline read, VP CANDIDATE PENCE GIVES CAMPAIGN SPEECH.17
Dutiful and patient, Pence offered nothing but support for Trump even when he suggested a President Hillary Clinton might be shot if she limited gun rights and encouraged Russian operatives to hack into his opponents’ computers. Pence held firm even when a videotape emerged with Donald Trump telling the host of a TV show called Access Hollywood that as a celebrity, he, Trump, could sexually harass and even grope women. “Grab ’em by the pussy,” he said. “You can do anything.”
The tape, which the Trump campaign initially dismissed as “locker room talk,” disgusted many Americans, including, according to Newsweek, Karen Pence. Quoting an unnamed former Pence aide, the magazine said Karen Pence considered Trump “reprehensible—just totally vile,” but a Pence spokeswoman denied that she had ever said such a thing.18 The New Yorker reported that the Pences refused to take Trump’s telephone calls and told him they needed to assess whether Mike would remain on the ticket. Pence issued a statement saying he was “offended” by what he heard on the tape. “I do not condone his remarks,” he said, “and cannot defend them.”
In private, Pence and GOP chairman Reince Priebus were said to have considered ways to force Trump to resign as the presidential candidate, leaving Pence to take his place. Such a move would have pleased those Republicans who identified themselves as “Never Trumpers,” but no workable mechanism existed to accomplish such a coup. People close to Pence denied that he ever had it in mind. “Once he signed on to the ticket with Trump, Mike knew what he was getting into,” one insider said. “He knew and he had to accept the way it was. Above all, he was loyal, and the talk of a deal with Reince was not true.”
Trump’s response to the revelation suggested that the reaction, whether it came from Pence or others, got to him. In a video message to the country, he said, “I’ve never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that I’m not. I’ve said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this more-than-a-decade-old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.” Trump ended this uncharacteristic statement—he almost never apologized—with a promise. “I pledge to be a better man tomorrow and will never, ever let you down.”
In the conservative Christian culture that Mike Pence knew, second chances were always available to repentant sinners, especially if they support the values and policies prized by members of the community. Pence had already anointed Trump in the eyes of this segment of the electorate, which meant there was almost nothing he couldn’t get away with just as long as he said he was sorry. Just to make sure, Pence went on television to vouch for him, telling CBS News, “What he’s made clear is that was talk, regrettable talk on his part, but that there were no actions, and he’s categorically denied these latest unsubstantiated allegations. The Donald Trump that I’ve come to know, that my family has come to know and spent a considerable amount of time with, is someone who has a long record of not only loving his family, lifting his family up, but employing and promoting women in positions of authority in his company,” he said.19
Whatever they themselves thought, Pence’s statement tied his wife and children to Trump. As the husband and father in a conservative Christian family, he was privileged to make such a choice and could expect that he would not be challenged once he did. In the meantime, a huge controversy erupted over the FBI’s revelation that emails mentioning Hillary Clinton were discovered on a computer belonging to disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, who was being investigated for sending lewd images to a minor. Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, was a top Clinton aide.
Ultimately, Pence’s vice presidential campaign would be recalled for his deft ability to stand with and for a presidential candidate whose life amounted to one long repudiation of the morals Pence promoted. The high point was the one debate he had with the Democratic Party’s candidate for vice president, Tim Kaine. Wisconsin Republican governor Scott Walker helped Pence prepare for the debate by playing Kaine in rehearsals and Pence mastered the ability to deflect even the most difficult questions. For example, when asked in the debate why Trump had reneged on a promise to release his tax returns, Pence said, “He hasn’t broken his promise … Look, Donald Trump has filed over one hundred pages of financial disclosure, which is what the law requires. The American people can review that. And he’s going—Senator, he’s going to release his tax returns when the audit is over.” (Even two years later, Trump still had not released his tax returns.) Pence glossed over one of Trump’s most outrageous claims—that Mexico was sending drug dealers and rapists across the border—to justify building a wall along the boundary. Other debate distortions offered by Pence included his denial that Trump had called for the expansion of nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia and Japan (he had) and the false claim that “less than ten cents on the dollar in the Clinton Foundation” went to charity (eighty-seven cents did); Pence also denied that Trump had praised Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a great leader. (Trump had said Putin was “a leader far more than our president [Obama] has been.
”)
* * *
From a fact-checker’s perspective, Pence’s performance was spotty at best, but people watching the debate were not equipped to test everything he said, and his calm demeanor reassured viewers that he might be a steadying influence on Trump. Watching at his home in Washington, Phil Sharp, the long-retired congressman who had soundly defeated Pence in Indiana, concluded that Kaine had lost within the first thirty minutes. “Pence had come a long way,” explained Sharp after the debate. “He wasn’t being truthful, but he looked and sounded calm and trustworthy. Kaine was too eager, too aggressive, and too wonky to connect with voters.”20
Late in the campaign, on October 24, Pence appeared before a group of right-wing Christian organizations called the Faith and Freedom Coalition, founded by Ralph Reed. After excoriating Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and liberalism in general, Pence turned to the justification for voting for Trump. “I’ve got to tell you,” he said, shaking his head. “This man, he’s a good father. He loves his family. And he loves this country. And he has a boundless faith in the American people, and I know he’ll be a great president of the United States of America. I’ve seen it up close. I’ve seen it up close.”
There was more: Pence had an intimate anecdote to share with the audience, as if he were standing at a backyard fence, chatting with decent folks who shared the same traditional values that those “others”—the Democrats—did not share. The time was the night after the Republican National Convention, said Pence. He then turned to his right in a bit of theater and gestured to Karen so that she could nod and acknowledge and recall the moment.
“Donald and I talked about the importance of prayer in our family life,” Pence began. “We talked with them warmly and personally about that. And that night, he just happened to say to me as he walked by, he said, ‘Before we break up tomorrow, could we have a little time for prayer?’ And I said, ‘Sure.’ And the next morning, we were on the plane. And we did one stop and we were getting ready to go, and sure enough, he came out from the back of the plane where he’d gone to freshen up and he said, ‘Can we pray?’ And we grabbed hands and bowed heads, and I asked Karen to pray on our departure as we both begin to go and make our way on this cause to the American people—it was a precious moment, but a tender moment.”
The Shadow President Page 22