Former vice president Mike Pence's decision to call out Donald Trump in a speech last Friday -- stating the former president was "wrong" for trying to claim the 2020 presidential election could be overturned --was either the act of a man who is gambling it may boost his chances for running for president or an unforced error that just doomed his political future.
That is according to CNN's Chris Cillizza who feels Pence, who was already on the outs with Trump partisans including those who wanted to lynch him on Jan 6th, probably needs to look for another line of work.
As Cillizza pointed out, "Mike Pence just crashed his political career into Donald Trump" on Friday and now he will be reaping the whirlwind of outrage coming from the former president's defenders and rabid base.
According to the analyst, "Two things are true about Pence's statements:1) He is 100% correct that under the Constitution, he had no legal authority to disqualify electors from certain states solely because Trump said he should. 2) He likely doomed whatever small chance he had at the presidency -- at least in the near term -- by saying what he said."
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The CNN analysts praised the former vice president for taking the big step, while at the same time stating that Pence put himself in the awkward position he has found himself by remaining silent for four years as he "cozied" up to Trump, hoping some of his popularity would rub off on him.
"In saying what he said, Pence guaranteed that he will never be the preferred candidate of the Trump base. (In truth, the former vice president may have forsaken that chance once and for all when he certified the 2020 election results.) At least at present, there is no path to the next Republican presidential nomination that doesn't go directly through Trump and Trumpism," he wrote before adding that, if Trump runs in 2024 and loses again, it may give Pence a leg up in 2028 after Republican's realize the futility of continuing to support the one-term president.
"While Pence's four years of cozying up to Trump -- and allowing his worst instincts to run rampant in Washington -- can't (and shouldn't) be forgotten, what he did in rejecting Trump's false election claims so publicly is rightly understood as an act of political courage," he wrote before predicting, "And one that, given the current state of the Republican Party, likely puts an end to Pence's presidential ambitions for now."
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