Pence: I wasn’t offended (So why does Trump want an apology?)

Pence: I wasn’t offended (So why does Trump want an apology?)

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norman lebrecht

November 20, 2016

Here’s what Vice President-Elect Mike Pence told Fox News Sunday about facing a speech from the stage of the musical Hamilton about the election result:

‘First off, my daughter and I and her cousins really enjoyed the show. HAMILTON is just an incredible production and incredibly talented people. It was a real joy to be there. When we arrived we heard a few boos and we heard some cheers. I nudged my kids and reminded them that that’s what freedom sounds like. At the end, I did hear what was said from the stage and I can tell you – I wasn’t offended by what was said. I’ll leave to others whether that was the appropriate venue to say it.

‘I do want to say, that the basic element and center of that message is one that I want to address. And that is – I know that this is a very disappointing time for people that did not see their candidate win in this national election. I know that this is a very stressful time for some people. I just want to reassure people that what President-elect Trump said on election night, he absolutely meant from the bottom of his heart. He is preparing to be the President of all of the people of the United States of America. And, to watch him bringing people of diverse views, bringing people together that differed with him strongly, seeing him talk to foreign leaders around the world. I just want to reassure every American, that in the days ahead I’m very confident that they’re going to see the President-elect be the President for all the people. We embrace that principle and we’re going to work hard to make that principle every day that we serve.’

This is a reasoned response from a seasoned politician. So why did Donald Trump hit the Tweeter?

mike-pence-hamilton

Comments

  • Ravi Narasimhan says:

    Good cop, bad cop?

  • jim says:

    Pence knows there are good odds it will be Pence 2020

  • bratschegirl says:

    Why did Trump hit the tweeter? Because that’s what he does. This is how he interacts with the world. The reasoned responses of a seasoned politician are not something he can do, has ever done, will ever do. Keep in mind that this is a man who told potential VP candidates that his job would be to “make America great again” and theirs would be to oversee foreign and domestic policy. As a Democrat, I’m half hoping that he gets so bored he resigns partway through the term, except that I find Pence a lot more frightening precisely because he actually holds deeply thought-out policy positions which are anathema to me. Frying pan, meet fire.

    • Stuard Young says:

      Our Violist Lady here has hit that proverbial nail squarely. Trump revels in his unpredictability. He tweets for the attention. I have taught many middle school students who behaved similarly for the attention. Usually, by 8th grade, they begin to out grow that need. The only thought I can add to Bratschegirl’s statements about Mike Pence is that during his few years as Governor, Indiana has become the most repressive state in which to live. Women’s and LBGT+ rights have been rolled back. Sad. And the reason why on the most recent Saturday Night Live, fake Donald Trump thanked fake Mike Pence for being the reason preventing his impeachment.

    • Jane says:

      You said it, bratschegirl!

    • Cyril Blair says:

      “…he actually holds deeply thought-out policy positions…”

      I wouldn’t really say this. He holds deeply-felt ideological positions based on his religious views in particular and his conservative stripe in general. He has never been considered a deep thinker in the Republican Party.

      • bratschegirl says:

        Fair enough. I wasn’t trying to cast him as a “deep thinker” so much as to contrast his consistent (according to his ideological/emotional/religious bent, as you accurately stated it) and long-held positions with DJT’s ADD-style flip-flopping in the slightest breeze.

    • Holly Golightly says:

      Barack Obama is king of the Twits (who Tweet). That and holding parties at the White House for rap, er, ‘singers’.

  • RUPERT CHRISTIANSEN says:

    Agreed, Norman. A reasonable and decent response to a reasonable and decent speech from the stage

  • Bob says:

    To deflect attention from the Trump university fraud settlement.

  • Mikey says:

    The only problem is, those are nice words from Pence, but pure and utter BS.

    He believes in removing rights from minorities, so maybe he thinks Trump wants to be the “president to all Americans”, but he sure as heck is NOT going to be the vice-president of all Americans. If you aren’t his type of “christian”, then you aren’t a good American and you don’t deserve rights.

  • John says:

    I think he’s got it all figured out. He’s going to delegate the decision-making down to his cabinet and agency heads so he can keep tweeting. He’ll start out by giving war making powers (and the nuclear codes) to vile-tempered, hair-trigger NSA head Mike Flynn. Next four years should be interesting if nothing else. Hang on, world!

  • Nick says:

    Trump tweeted for one reason and one reason only. To deflect public comment and the 24-hour news cycle from concentrating on his agreement to pay former students of the failed Trump University $25 million, the lawsuit he said he’d fight to the bitter end! And like all his other deflecting tweets – it worked!

  • John Borstlap says:

    Both trumpism and hitlerism are rooted in the same humus, and develop similar processes:

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2016/11/his_election_that_november_came_as_a_surprise.html

    We see the scoundrels being moibilized and ‘organized’. Double speak is the norm in such times….. the cast concerned may expect a premature end to their career, and they won’t be the sole victoms.

  • John Borstlap says:

    Horrors have become real possibilities:

    “And if one thing is clear about Trump, it is that his instincts are deeply authoritarian. The political scientist Juan Linz listed the warning signs long ago. As described by the Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, they include “a refusal to unambiguously disavow violence, a readiness to curtail rivals’ civil liberties, and the denial of the legitimacy of an elected government.” Trump, they write, passes this anti-democratic litmus test with flying colors:

    “…..He has encouraged violence among supporters (offering to pay their legal fees), pledged to jail Hillary Clinton and take legal action against unfriendly media, and suggested that he might not accept the election results. Such acts are unprecedented among major American candidates, but they are precisely the kind of behavior that Linz and other scholars have identified as preceding democratic breakdown in interwar Europe.”

    “Of course, for all we know, Trump may never attack the freedom of the press. He may never order his underlings to commit illegal acts. He may never decide to disobey a ruling by the Supreme Court. He may never manufacture a foreign war to assure himself of re-election. And he may never falsify election results or lock up his political opponents, when all of that won’t suffice. But all these horrors are now real possibilities. If we are to have any chance of stopping them, we must start to learn the art of resisting a would-be dictator.”

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/how_to_preserve_the_ideals_of_liberal_democracy_in_the_face_of_a_trump_presidency.html

    Also for culture, all the alarm bells should ring loud & clear. Warning example: Valery Gergiev.

  • Eric says:

    It’s simple: Trump and Pence clearly do not calibrate their messages together. Trump reacts too quickly on an immediate communications platform. And his team must work to correct and/or reassure his messages, so that they are interpreted to reflect everyone. The disparity between them will only project further a platform that they Trump and his team are separated.

    • John Borstlap says:

      Indeed. But the greatest worry is that mr T-Rex accidentally goes sitting on the nuclear button.

      • Holly Golightly says:

        That comment is oh, so, 1950s.

        • John Borstlap says:

          But it is still the same button, I have seen it for myself when I recently was a guest at the White House. It is in a little room in the hallway, disguised as a toilet. I went in by mistake, and you see a small, rather low desk in front of you with an enormous red button with a cardboard sign next to it with ‘Don’t touch’.

        • Nydo says:

          So is pretty much everything you post.

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