Mike Pence's presidential ambitions appear dead on arrival.
Republicans generally like the former vice president well enough, but Donald Trump's base of voters despise Pence for refusing to overturn what they still believe was a stolen election, reported Politico.
"I don't imagine he'd have a whole lot of support," said Raymond Harre, a GOP vice chair in Scott County, Iowa. "There are some Trump supporters who think he's the anti-Christ."
Harre admits the fury against Pence is "kind of nutty," but he and other Republicans don't see him as a viable continuation of the Trump political brand.
"Who?" said Republican operative Doug Gross when asked about Pence. "It's just, where would you place him? … With Trumpsters, he didn't perform when they really wanted him to perform, so he's DQ'd there. Then you go to the evangelicals, they have plenty of other choices."
White evangelicals, who had been Pence's core supporters, are more likely than any other religious group to believe the November election was stolen, and the former vice president is hoping to hang onto their support despite some of those same Trump backers threatening to hang him during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
"MAGA is maniacally focused on 3 November, and they understand Pence betrayed them," said former White House strategist Steve Bannon. "He is being shunned and erased from the MAGA movement, and it hasn't even started."
Bannon claims the Arizona election "audit" being conducted by right-wing conspiracists will kill off whatever chances Pence has to run for president.
"Mike Pence's political career is over," he said. "It's done."
Charlie Kirk, the founder of the right-wing group Turning Point USA, recently accused Target of "grooming" kids by offering Pride youth apparel. Yet that reportedly hasn't stop his organization from being bankrolled by a registered sex offender, new reporting reveals.
Rolling Stone reported that Shawn Bergstrand is a "benefactor" of Kirk, and that his criminal history "opens up TPUSA to charges of hypocrisy."
"Rolling Stone has learned that one of the TPUSA summit’s corporate sponsors is a Christian fashion company that is led by a registered sex offender, Shawn Bergstrand, who served time in federal prison for attempted 'coercion and enticement' after trying to persuade 'a minor female' to 'engage in sexual activity,'" it wrote.
For its part, the organization said it wasn't aware of the "incident," but also provided a type of defense for the apparent hypocrisy.
"In a statement to Rolling Stone, TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said that TPUSA Faith 'was not aware of this incident' but emphasized that, as an 'exhibit sponsor,' Bergstrand was not a speaker, organizer, or 'professing doctrine from the stage,'" the report states.
IN OTHER NEWS: Stewart Rhodes' sentencing rant 'unwittingly' exposed 'deepening rift' among right-wingers: extremism expert
Going even further, the CEO appeared to lean on the tenets of the Christian faith:
“One of the core tenants of the Christian faith is forgiveness rooted in repentance. After discussing the issue with him, we believe [it] was critical to bringing him to faith,” Kolvet added, the report shows. “He doesn’t hide from what happened, he instead posts his testimony online on his company website. TPUSA Faith will not toss away a repentant, decent person because of a mistake that happened over a decade before, or because a leftwing outlet wants to write a hit piece on the amazing work our team is doing.”
"Kolvet included a reference to Colossians 3:13, a Bible verse that reads, in part, 'Forgive as the Lord forgave you," according to the news report.
According to extremism expert Juliette Kayyem, during Oath Keeper head Stewart Rhodes' rant before he was sentenced to 18 years in prison on sedition charges he threw fellow right-wing extremists under the bus.
As she notes, Rhodes' rage-filled diatribe and defense of his actions leading up to the Jan. 6th insurrection revealed a growing schism among extremist groups.
In her column for The Atlantic, she wrote, "Rhodes also unwittingly revealed deepening fissures in the far-right movement that, two years ago, resorted to violence to keep Donald Trump in the White House. The defendant used some of his time to distance himself from the Proud Boys, another extremist organization, with whom he had met in the days before the insurrection."
With his attack on the Proud Boys, she wrote, Rhodes was announcing to the world, "I’ve been misunderstood. The Proud Boys are the ones you want."
RELATED: Man who served time for Jan. 6 Parler threats demands $370 million for being banned: report
As Kayyem explained, the growing mistrust between far-right groups is a bonus for Americans.
Writing that "the rift appears to be deepening," she added, "On January 6, a variety of groups put aside their differences, but solidarity is difficult to sustain. As prosecutions continue and participants in the insurrection try to save themselves, divisions within the far right over ideology and strategy—as well as conflicts driven by pure ego—are reasserting themselves."
"Over time, mismanagement and general pettiness distract many extremist groups from their cause. Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State similarly devolved into catfights as they lost on battlefields," she elaborated. "Rhodes, who imagines himself an intellectual, appears to feel tarnished by alliances with mere racists. That he would defend himself in court by complaining about the Proud Boys signals to would-be followers that he’s self-absorbed, not that he’s sacrificing himself for noble cause. An effective way to combat right-wing extremism is to put its leaders’ selfishness on display."
She added hopefully, "In the meantime, let the infighting continue."
You can read more here.
A man who was convicted for threatening a follow-up attack after the Capitol Hill insurrection, and suggested bringing enough people and weapons to overcome any "standing army or police agency," is now suing right-wing social network Parler for banning him for those very threats.
Troy Smocks is suing Parler, which was recently shut down after it was sold, leaving former employees to plot their own new platform, for $370 million, according to a Gizmodo report.
"Troy Smocks was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison and banned from the now-dormant social network Parler after he made violent threats on the app in the wake of the January 6th riots. Now Smocks is suing Parler for $370 million, accusing the company of violating a controversial Texas law which bars social media platforms from censoring users for their political beliefs," reported Gizmodo. "Smocks’ Parler posts advocated for the insurrection on January 6th, 2021, and he rallied for more violence the next day. 'Over the next 24 hours, I would say lets get our personal affairs in order. Prepare our weapons, and then go get’em,' Smocks wrote on Parler from a Washington, DC hotel on January 7th. 'Lets hunt these cowards down like the Traitors that each of them are. This includes RINOS, Dems, and Tech Execs. We now have the green light,' he said."
Smocks would later plead guilty to making interstate threats. Yet his lawsuit says he was banned from Parler for supporting former president Trump.
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Trump and Ted Cruz mount last-minute appeals against Texas AG Paxton's GOP-led impeachment
"But the lawsuit accuses Parler of banning Smocks 'solely because of Plaintiff’s selection and vote casting for a political candidate, then United States President Donald J. Trump.' The complaint makes no mention of the 59-year old’s criminal calls for violence," according to the report. "The lawsuit, spotted in the newsletter Court Watch, names as defendants Parler, its former CEO John Matze, and Rebekah Mercer, the billionaire right-wing philanthropist who secretly funded the company in its early days."
For his part, Matze told Gizmodo he thinks Smocks "is having trouble accepting his own life choices and is looking to put the blame on others."
Copyright © 2023 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | Masthead | Privacy Policy | Manage Preferences
For corrections contact corrections@rawstory.com, for support contact support@rawstory.com.
