EXCLUSIVE: Trump silent as Pence criticizes his Putin love affair and “Big Lie”
Former President Donald Trump is silent in the face of questioning about his former VP sharply criticizing his open praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, praise which he publicly proclaimed in appearances on Fox News and at the CPAC 2022 convention after the strongman’s bloody invasion of Ukraine had already begun.
At an RNC fundraiser on March 4th, former Vice President Mike Pence went in the opposite direction of his former boss by criticizing Putin’s war and those who support him.
Saying the Republican Party has no room for “apologists,” he added:
“Putin only understands strength. As members of the party that won the Cold War, we must send a deafening message: Putin must stop, or Putin must pay.”
His speech was met with roaring applause from the conservative crowd.
More shocking than Pence being out of lockstep with Trump was the radio silence from a man known to lash out angrily at anyone in his party who even hints at contradicting him.
Occupy Democrats reached out to Trump twice seeking comment for this story, but the twice-impeached former president remained conspicuously silent in the face of the very public rebuke by Pence, his former Vice President, and two-time running mate.
A request for comment from Trump’s official spokeswoman on Sunday has gone unanswered. Crickets.
.@realLizUSA, would you like to make a statement in regards to former Vice President Mike Pence saying ‘there’s no room in the GOP’ for Putin apologists? What does former President Trump have to say? https://t.co/TqMQyR5RNG
— Ty Ross (@cooltxchick) March 6, 2022
When I called the Mar-a-Lago Club on Monday to get a comment from ex-President Trump or from his employer which is the club he owns, about Pence’s attack, I was told, “This is a private club. I can’t help you.” Click.
The author’s follow-up call rang for 22-times without being answered.
An editor’s call to the Mar-A-Lago switchboard on Wednesday yielded the same private club reaction, along with a response of “I can’t help you because you’re not a member.” But the phone contact confirmed that it was Mar-A-Lago and the self-identified manager on the recorded line said:
“We can’t assist media. Especially media. I would recommend going on DonaldJTrump.com. It doesn’t work like that. He’s not an employee. I’m just following the rules.”
Interestingly, Trump’s continued permission to maintain residence at Mar-A-Lago hinges on him being a “bona fide employee” of the club. That’s due to agreements he signed in the 1990s to get permission from the Town of Palm Beach, Florida. It’s unknown if he has formally changed his employment status since last spring.
In a last-ditch effort to get a comment from Trump, we submitted a media request through his website which reads:
“Would President Trump like to make a statement regarding former Vice President Mike Pence’s attack that he is un-American and wrong about the 2020 election being stolen?”
As of the time of publication, we have not gotten a single response from the silent former Commander-in-Chief.
For Mike Pence, this weekend’s statement was a total 180 from his position as recently as 2018, when he said Vladimir Putin was a stronger leader than President Obama. Here’s Pence in an interview on CNN from that time:
Mike Pence: "I think it's inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country." #TrumpRussia pic.twitter.com/X7QuuONaZK
— Matt Rogers (@Politidope) February 18, 2018
Former VP Pence’s change of heart is also quite the opposite from what some in the Republican Party have to say these days, besides his former boss who publicly praised Putin’s intellect and strategy. Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Putin a “talented statesman.”
Yet, in a move on the same page as President Joe Biden, this past weekend Mike Pence called for a ban on Russian oil exports. On Tuesday, the president announced a new sanction restricting Russian oil sales to America.
Today, I’m announcing that the United States is targeting a main artery of Russia’s economy.
We are banning all imports of Russian oil and gas.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 8, 2022
This isn’t the first time Pence has criticized Trump and his allies. But it’s only the second time that there was no major backlash.
In February, at a conference hosted by the Federalist Society, Pence said that Trump was both “wrong” and “un-American” for his continued insistence that Pence could have overturned the 2020 election. He also criticized those still holding on to the “Big Lie.”
“We cannot win by fighting yesterday’s battles or by re-litigating the past,” Pence said at the time.
Former Trump aide Peter Navarro delivered the harshest criticism of the former vice president, saying that Pence was “dead politically”.
The public and private support Pence received for his speech says otherwise.
Pence is right in both instances. It’s time to hold Putin accountable for his actions and move on from the 2020 election.
Whether that means Pence is breaking from Trump’s Republican Party, who knows? Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick
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