Mike Pence, About to Have His Tires Slashed by Trump, Says He Was “Proud” to Certify Election Results

In the months since Donald Trump incited a violent mob to attack the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to block the certification of Joe Biden’s win, former vice president Mike Pence has been weirdly understanding about the fact that his old boss nearly got him killed. For one thing, he refused to speak out at Trump’s (second) impeachment trial, despite the fact that, at a “Stop the Steal” rally just prior to the attack on the Capitol, Trump whipped his supporters into a frenzy, repeatedly attacking the V.P. throughout his speech and suggesting to the crowd that it was possible that Pence might come through and stop Biden from becoming president, “elevating,” as The Washington Post put it, “the suspense and eventual shock among his supporters at Pence’s perceived betrayal when the [congressional] session opened” and Pence did no such thing. “Mike Pence,” Trump said, “I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you.”

Meanwhile, when Pence has spoken about January 6, it’s to merely say things like, “I don’t know if [Trump and I will] ever see eye to eye on that day,” which is a weird way to describe a situation wherein he came perilously close to a bloodthirsty hoard that’d been egged on by the 45th president, which would have, according to an FBI affidavit, “killed [the] vice president…if given the chance.” (As it happens, the rioters marched through the building chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.” These are the same people that, later in the day, Trump told “we love you” and “you’re very special,” before writing in his last tweet before being kicked off the platform that the attack was justified. “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” he said. “Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”)

On Thursday evening, though, Pence seemed to…almost, kind of grow a spine!

Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, the former V.P. said that he was thrilled he was able to officially certify Biden’s win following the attack, a declaration that will no doubt enrage Trump, who is reportedly still trying to overturn the results of the election. “I will always be proud that we did our part on that tragic day to reconvene the Congress and fulfilled our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States,” Pence told the group assembled, pushing back on the idea, held by Trump, that he had any authority to reject the votes submitted to Congress. He added: “The truth is, there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”

Of course, Pence hasn’t entirely turned his back on Trump:

He spent much of his speech reciting what he said were Mr. Trump’s accomplishments on many issues, including free trade, border security and relations with China. “President Trump changed the national consensus on China,” he said. Mr. Pence also compared Mr. Trump to former President Ronald Reagan.

“He too disrupted the status quo,” Mr. Pence said. “He challenged the establishment. He invigorated our movement and set a bold new course for America.”

Trump, who has probably already reacted to the remarks in a pitch only dogs can hear, will presumably just focus on the “Biden is the rightful president” bits, though.

General Mark Milley, liberal icon?

Okay definitely not, but the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who earned the ire of Republicans this week for acknowledging systemic racism is real, should be commended for reportedly telling Stephen Miller to sit down and STFU. Per CNN, which obtained a copy of a forthcoming book on the matter, Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost, by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender:

During one Oval Office debate, senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller chimed in, equating the scenes unfolding on his television [during the 2020 racial-justice protests] to those in a third-world country and claiming major American cities had been turned into war zones. “These cities are burning,” Miller warned, according to the excerpts.

The comment infuriated Milley, who viewed Miller as not only wrong but out of his lane, Bender writes, noting the Army general who had commanded troops in Iraq and Afghanistan spun around in his seat and pointed a finger directly at Miller. “Shut the f–k up, Stephen,” Milley snapped, according to the excerpts.

It’s not clear how Miller responded though it’s likely that he spent the rest of the meeting sulking in the corner before going home to retire to the coffin he sleeps in.

Former Biden campaign staffers sue group of Trump supporters

Which seems reasonable given the latter basically drove the former off the road last summer:

The complaint was filed on behalf White House staffer, David Gins; former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis; former Biden campaign volunteer Eric Cervini; and the driver of the Biden campaign bus, Timothy Holloway. The plaintiffs wrote in their complaint filed in the Western District of Texas that on October 30, the Trump supporters “terrorized and menaced the driver and passengers on the Biden-Harris Campaign’s bus” for at least 90 minutes, forcing the bus to slow to a crawl on a major highway while swerving in front of the bus to block its path. “They played a madcap game of highway ‘chicken,’ coming within three to four inches of the bus,” the lawsuit alleges. “They tried to run the bus off the road,” referring to the defendants.

The complaint alleges that the defendants—named as Eliazar Cisneros, Hannah Ceh, Joeylynn Mesaros, Robert Mesaros, Dolores Park, and a Jane and John Doe—conspired beforehand to surround and block the bus in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act, passed by Congress in 1871 to prohibit the obstruction of free and fair elections via the coordinated intimidation of voters. As a result of their actions, they claim, the campaign was forced to cancel its stops in San Marcos and Austin out of fear for their safety.

Davis, who at the time was serving as a Biden campaign surrogate, filmed the incident from the inside of the bus. The previously unseen footage, which was provided exclusively to CNN, shows several vehicles with Trump flags surrounding the Biden campaign bus, cutting in front of it, and abruptly braking to slow the bus down as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin for a campaign event.

Davis’ recording also shows one truck with Trump flags—allegedly driven by Cisneros—sideswiping a campaign staffer’s SUV as they accompanied the bus. “That was me slamming that f—er….Hell yea,” Cisneros later posted on Facebook…. CNN has reached out to the defendants in the suit. None of them have been criminally charged in the incident.

The lawsuit references an October 28 video posted to Twitter by Donald Trump Jr. encouraging Trump Train members to “get together and head down to McAllen and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump Train welcome,” which he’ll presumably now claim meant that they should greet the Biden-Harris camp with coffee and Danishes. Following the incident, his father tweeted out a video of the highway altercation with the caption, “I LOVE TEXAS!” The plaintiffs claim that, in addition to violating the Ku Klux Klan Act, the Trump Train people engaged in civil assault, “intentionally and/or knowingly” threatening the Biden-Harris bus “with imminent bodily injury by engaging in aggressive, dangerous, and reckless driving that put Plaintiffs and others on I-35 in physical danger.”

Davis told CNN, “Though I’ve been involved in many political campaigns for myself and others over the past couple of decades, I have never before experienced the threat or fear I felt when the ‘Trump Train’ surrounded our bus. I’m a part of this suit because I’m worried that this sort of dangerous behavior threatens to become the new normal if we don’t stop it.” Gins told the network, “The experience of those 90 minutes on I-35 is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Elections are partisan and can get heated, but we cannot allow violence to become part of our great democracy. If you resort to violence, the law will hold you accountable for your actions.” Holloway said that was the last bus he ever drove.

Elsewhere!

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Bitcoin miners flocked to an upstate New York town for cheap energy—then it got complicated (CNBC)

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Jennifer Aniston Is in a “Peaceful Place” After Overcoming Fear of Bread (The Cut)

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