Mike Pence Is a Scoundrel Who Won't Go Quietly

One of Donald Trump's most loyal stenographers, the New York Times' Maggie Haberman, has put this shit into the world on behalf of the president: [Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] "Is Mike Pence Loyal? Trump Is Asking, Despite His Recent Endorsement."

One. No. Mike Pence is not loyal.

Two. If Trump imagines that publicly questioning Pence's loyalty is going to make him more loyal, he doesn't understand his veep at all. This passive-aggressive shit categorically is not going to make Pence more loyal, because Pence has never been loyal. (And never will be.) Positioning himself proximate to Trump's power isn't loyalty. His objective is to seize that power for himself, as soon as possible.

Three. I suspect Trump will swiftly discover all of the above once arrives the day in January marking the halfway point of his term, at which time Pence can assume the presidency and still be eligible to serve two full terms as president himself.

I have long said that I believe Pence has been working with the FBI since the campaign and with Mueller since he started his investigation, and I believe it still. And, as I have said many times, to really understand Mike Pence, you have to understand that he has wanted to be president virtually his entire life, and he will do anything to get it. (Besides being a decent human being with good policy, obviously.)

All of which means: Pence knows if Trump goes down in an election loss in 2020, his own last, best shot at the presidency goes down with it — meaning his best bet is to make sure that Trump goes down via resignation or impeachment. Even election rigging can't help someone who doesn't get nominated.

Four. About that "recent endorsement." Trump publicly asked Pence to be his veep again only after a reporter asked the question, seemingly out of left field, at a press conference. I had an instinct that Pence had planted the question, so I asked if anyone knew who the reporter was, and got the answer: Mark Meredith, who just so happens to have done a ridiculous softball interview with Pence in July.

And in trying to find out more about him, I saw this tweet, which led me to discover he works for Nexstar Media Group, the second largest media group after Sinclair.

So this kid reporter (who is terrible, by the way, if you watch that interview) somehow is a credentialed White House reporter for Nexstar, and just randomly decided to ask if Pence would be on the ticket again. The day after the midterms, in which Trump was delivered a staggering defeat.

And he explained it on Twitter thus: "I thought it was as good as [sic] time as any to ask."

Yeah. And it was just coincidentally the best time for Pence to get his boss to publicly commit to keeping him a heartbeat away from the presidency.

No wonder Trump is getting antsy. He should be.