Time for a little bit of a departure from the normal posts, and speculate about some rumors.
I alluded to this on Friday, but I didn’t want to include this in the Daily Check-In, since I felt this could be significant for future developments.
Did Mike Pence flip on Donald Trump?
WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW
First, a little background.
I’ve described on multiple occasions about how Vice President Mike Pence is dirty AF. (That means “as fuck” for the old people out there.)
He’s up to his neck in shit. Pence was Paul Manafort’s pick for Vice President, over Chris Christie, Jon Kasich, and Michael Flynn (yes, THAT Mike Flynn.) Pence was the head of the transition team, which was responsible for ensuring a smooth transition and hiring key people. He hired Mike Flynn, and was informed by multiple members of Congress about Flynn being compromised BEFORE the inauguration. Sally Yates testified in front of Congress back in March or April about Pence knowing about Flynn being compromised AFTER the inauguration. Pence has been implicated in several of the campaign shenanigans, including hiring hackers to scour for the emails. Since then, he’s also been implicated in Obstruction of Justice charges surrounding Jim Comey’s firing.
Back in May, after Comey was fired, Trump met with the Russians in the Oval Office, and Pence lied about all of it to the public, Robert Mueller was named as the Special Counselor in charge of the Russian Investigation. Pence was in the Oval Office with Trump, Jeff Sessions, and McGahn when the call was made.
That was May 17th.
On May 18th, set up a Political Action Committee, or PAC, for his future political concerns. It’s a pretty unusual move for a VP to do this, less than four months into the job, in the first term of a presidency that spews chaos.
In June, it was reported that Pence had hired Robert Cullen in late May. Cullen, a former US Attorney, previously worked with Mueller.
It’s also been reported that Cullen has met with Mueller’s team on multiple occasions.
RUMOR TIME
Starting Thursday night on twitter, @AngrierWHStaff, Angry White House Staffer, got into an argument with some people about whether or not Pence would end up in jail. Angry was adamant that he wouldn’t. Over the next couple hours, Angry mentioned that he had seen Cullen meet with Mueller multiple times, and had handed over a lot of information. Angry concludes that Pence had flipped on Trump, and was feeding Mueller info to bury Trump and save his own ass. By doing so, he’ll avoid prison time and will succeed Trump as President, and would avoid jail time.
Quick sidebar. To “flip” on someone in legalese is to turn over incriminating evidence on a person, group, or organization.
Later that day, Ale (@aliasvaughn) put together a thread detailing the many ways in how Pence has implicated himself, and how this move was a smokescreen, likely to confuse and confound the investigation.
MY TAKE
Here’s my take on Pence. He’s dirty, he’s a liar, a zealot, but scariest of all, he’s competent.
He lies. A lot. Not only does he lie, but he’s he’s good at it. So good, he convinces his target that he was right the whole time. It’s called Gaslighting.
Pence thinks that he’s ordained by God to lead the United States. He probably saw Mueller as a sign from above.
He was ready to move on to presidency on January 20th. He doesn’t plan to be Trump’s VP on the 2020 ticket. He doesn’t plan on Trump being President by then.
This is part of Pence’s plan.
He started his PAC the day after the Special Counselor is named, and hired an attorney who was a good friend of Mueller’s.
Pence flipped on Trump. He’s selling him down the river, but trying to make it look like he’s loyal to Trump. Pence is loyal to himself.
Will this stop Mueller from coming after Pence? Not likely. He’s screwed 8 ways to Sunday.
Will Pence become President? Very likely. Unless he gets indicted first, or at the same time, Pence will succeed Trump. How long is the interesting part. He’s a lame duck from the start, and may only be in office long enough to ensure a peaceful transition.
Will Pence go to jail? I don’t know. I don’t think so. I picture him receiving a pardon to avoid jail time, and he would disappear into obscurity.
Thank you, and have a good one.
None of this is Normal 