A tale of two post-election missives
With the votes still being counted and Republicans coming to terms with Tuesday’s disappointing results, the last few days have seen the publication of two very different score-settling memos.
The first was from Mike Pence on Wednesday. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Pence divulged new details about his “last days with Donald Trump” Pence details his interactions with the former president in the days between the 2020 election and Inauguration Day in January 2021. He paints a picture of Trump losing patience with his VP. Pence recounts a conversation on the morning of the day Congress was set to certify the election results:
I rose early that day and worked on my statement to Congress. When the phone rang a little after 11 a.m., it was the president. “Despite the press release you issued last night,” I said, “I have always been forthright with you, Mr. President.” I reiterated that I didn’t believe I had the power to decide which electoral votes would count and said I would be issuing a statement to Congress confirming that before the joint session started.
The president laid into me. “You’ll go down as a wimp,” he said. “If you do that, I made a big mistake five years ago!”
But when he said, “You’re not protecting our country, you’re supposed to support and defend our country!” I calmly reminded him, “We both took an oath to support and defend the Constitution.”
Pence also details his determination to stay at the Capitol after pro-Trump rioters delayed the certification process. “I knew that if we got into the car, somebody would tell the driver to get us out of the building,” he writes. In their final meeting, Pence tells Trump he’s “never going to stop praying for you.” Trump replies: “That’s right — don’t ever change.”
The timing of the publication of this excerpt from Pence’s memoir is no accident: in the wake of the midterms, Trump is at a low ebb, weaker than at arguably any other time in his political career with the possible exception of the immediate aftermath of January 6.
A further sign of that weakness came in the form of a statement from the former president himself. Clearly in a huff after this week’s election, Trump went nuclear on Ron DeSantis Thursday evening. In a long, angry post, he attacked DeSantis for his Covid track record, complained about the Murdoch press turning on him and rambled about his past cooperation with DeSantis.
It appears to have gone down very badly indeed, with usually sympathetic sources raising their eyebrows at the all-out war Trump has declared on the right’s rising star. But the Pence op-ed is a reminder that there is more to the story than Ron vs Don. In the coming weeks, there will be a chorus of 2024 hopefuls having their say. The question is whether that cacophony helps Trump, by creating the perception of an unfair pile-on and perhaps setting him apart from a crowd of wannabes. Or does it create the circumstances in which it is clear to Republicans that it is safe to break from Trump: an all-jump-at-once sense of safety-in-numbers which means the former president cannot rely on the deference so many have shown him until now.
Time will tell. Whatever happens, Trump appears determined to soldier on. He is pressing ahead with his big announcement in Florida next week, making clear that he will not be going quietly. But then who ever thought he would?
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Kevin McCarthy scrambles for the gavel
Kevin McCarthy expected a coronation; instead he is stuck in a street fight. After a disappointing set of results and with the House not even called for the GOP yet, the House minority leader is pulling out all the stops to be elected speaker. McCarthy is having to work so hard thanks to the House Freedom Caucus, who aren’t sold on the Californian lawmaker. Texas representative Chip Roy told reporters: “I haven’t seen a plan on what to do to demand that we secure our borders where Texans are getting assaulted. So, until I see a plan with any kind of leadership, which again is not something you run for, it’s something you demonstrate. Then again, nobody’s earned 218 votes.”
McCarthy’s strategy appears to be to move as quickly as possible. He’s already established transition teams and declared his intention to run. The hope is that his bid to be speaker gathers enough momentum to snuff out rival campaigns before they’ve begun.
FedSoc makes some noise for ACB
Amy Coney Barrett received a long standing ovation at the Federalist Society gala in downtown Washington last night. “It’s nice to hear so much noise not made by protesters outside my house,” she quipped.
Loan forgiveness loses in court
Lost amid the midterm: a federal judge in Texas blocked the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program Thursday. Judge Pitman found what many experts have said has been clear from the start: that the order “does not provide clear congressional authorization for the program proposed by the secretary.” As of this morning, the administration had stopped taking applications for loan forgiveness. The White House is appealing the decision, of course, and the case seems destined for the Supreme Court. It’s reasonable to ask how invested Biden is in the program’s continued existence. The applications were being processed through Election Day — and the measure has always felt more like a cynical pitch to younger voters than a thought-through pillar of Bidenomics.
What you should be reading today
Batya Ungar-Sargon: The normie election
Jacob Heilbrunn: Donald Trump, accidental Paul Revere
Amber Athey: J.D. Vance was destined to win in Ohio
Nahal Toosi, Politico: A meltdown in Haiti is testing Biden’s diplomatic mojo
Matthew Continetti, Wall Street Journal: Trump is the chief obstacle to Republican renewal
Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review: A real Republican autopsy
Poll watch
President Biden job approval
Approve: 42.3 percent
Disapprove: 54.6 percent
Net approval: -12.3 (RCP average)
Congressional vote by gender
Men
Republican: 56 percent
Democrat: 42 percent
Women
Republican: 45 percent
Democrat: 53 percent (Network exit poll)
