Having barely cleared the hurdles for prior Republican debates, former Vice President Mike Pence has dropped out before failing to qualify for the third. Pence has seen no traction, running as an alternative for right voters who don’t believe in overthrowing the Republic. Apparently, there are not enough MAGAs willing who believe election results should dictate the results of an election for Pence to have ever been competitive.
Pence’s failure to join in his prior boss and Republican front-runner, Donald J. Trump’s scheme to overturn the results of the last Presidential election has earned him the ire of MAGAs. While Pence sees himself as a shining example of everything excellent with American conservatism, MAGAs have only slightly backed off of calls to hang him.
The decision, more than two months before the Iowa caucuses that he had staked his campaign on, saves Pence from the embarrassment of failing to qualify for the third Republican primary debate, Nov. 8 in Miami.
But the withdrawal is a huge blow for a politician who spent years biding his time as Trump’s most loyal lieutenant, only to be scapegoated during their final days in office when Trump became convinced that Pence somehow had the power to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep both men in office — not something a vice president could do.
While Pence averted a constitutional crisis by rejecting the scheme, he drew Trump’s fury, as well as the wrath of many of Trump’s supporters who believed his lies and still see Pence as a traitor.
