For a while Wednesday, former Vice President Mike Pence seemed to be hitting the 2024 presidential campaign trail with a new determination to travel a bold, principled and surprisingly unswerving path that would set him apart from the Republican presidential pack.
But within hours, it became clear the Mike Pence we have long known was back in the straddle again.
Which is too bad. History will never forget the Jan. 6 day when America's unheralded veep rose to defend the Constitution and reject the pressuring of his boss and the violence of an insurrection mob that wanted him to single-handedly overthrow the 2020 reelection defeat of his own Trump-Pence ticket.
And Wednesday, at a midday rally in Ankeny, Iowa, Pence made sure no one would ever forget Jan. 6. He called it "a tragic day in the life of our nation" - and made clear it was why he was running against Donald Trump. This is the first time in more than 80 years a vice president is running against the former president he served.
"I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States," Pence said. "And anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again."
But that night, at a CNN Town Hall event in Des Moines, anchor Dana Bash noted that just an hour after Pence had said that during his announcement, he said (on Fox News) that he would support whomever won the GOP nomination. "So if you think that Donald Trump should never be president, how could you commit to supporting him if he is the nominee?" she asked.
Pence launched into a wandering filibuster, chronicling his son's career as a Marine, Ronald Reagan's impressiveness - but never answering the question. So Bash pressed again, again and yet again. The closest he came to answering was saying he didn't think Trump would be nominated.
Pence had reverted to the full straddle that has long been many pols' default mode. Bash spent much of the night conducting a Journalism 101 clinic in following-up.
After Pence said "I think the Republican Party has to be the party of the Constitution" and that everyone deserves "equal treatment" under the law, Bash asked Pence about the fact that the Justice Department had notified Trump's lawyers that he is a target in the federal investigation of possible mishandling of classified documents. Should Trump be indicted if evidence shows he committed a crime?
"I don't know the facts of the president's case," Pence responded. ".But what we have got to have in this country is equal treatment under the law." Another filibuster ensued and Bash persisted. Finally, Pence said: "I think it would be terribly divisive to the country, at a time when the American people are hurting .I would just hope that there would be a way for them to move forward without the dramatic and drastic and divisive step of indicting a former president of the United States."
So Pence thinks former presidents shouldn't be indicted. That means Pence really thinks not all treatment under the law should be "equal," after all.
And so it goes. We are in for a long ride along the 2024 campaign trail.
EPILOGUE: As our campaign trail travails wind through a year and a half of town halls and debates, there are lessons the folks in our craft can learn as well. Consider the possibility of TV networks fact-checking pols and candidates who deliberately distort - or just goof or gaffe - even as live Q&A events are occurring. TV networks have the capability of checking candidate comments - and then sharing the truth with viewers before the show ends.
CNN's sharp fact-checkers found several instances where Pence made claims that turned out to be flat-out wrong. But they never told the viewers until the event was over and the next analysis show aired.
One was Pence's assertion that, on abortion laws, exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother are "are exceptions that I've always supported, Dana, as you know." But she had no way of knowing the truth and viewers didn't either - unless they watched a post-town hall analysis show. Then, CNN reporter Daniel Dale presented details disclosing Pence had several times rejected some or all of those exceptions.
But CNN's fact-check reporter off-stage could have found the truth, informed the anchor via her earpiece - and he could have been introduced to present the truth on-air. Candidates could then comment.
And voters, who are now often misled and confused during events, would be far better served.
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