...and he did!
- He refused to go along with The Fat Orange Turd's illegal, unconstitutional, bat-crap crazy, lunatic scheme.
- He refused to leave the Capitol because he thought the Vice President running away from the danger was a bad look, and he didn't want the angry mob to have that satisfaction.
- He refused to leave because he knew it was his duty to stay and finish carrying out his Constitutional obligation to overturn the peaceful transfer of power.
Does this really make him a hero?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/opinion/letters/mike-pence-jan-6.html
Many Trump ass-kissing Republicans have walked back their criticisms of The Fat Orange Turd that they made in the days after January 6 - Kevin McCarthy, Nikki Haley, Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham. Then there was Rep Andrew Clyde (photographed helping other Congressmen using furniture to barricade the house chamber), who later flip-flopped and said that
"Jan. 6 was just a tourist visit", and then
The Republican National Committee ridiculously labelled Jan 6
"legitimate political discourse" in their censure of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for standing up and speaking the truth.
Meanwhile, Pence has continued to say that The Fat Orange Turd was wrong. In a speech to the Federalist Society in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, he said.
"President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. And frankly there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president"
"And the truth is there's more at stake than our party or political fortunes. Men and women: if we lose faith in the Constitution, we won't just lose elections, we'll lose our country,"
Nope, Pence is no hero. He was doing his job.
Now, I find it hard to see past his inaction and silence while The Fat Orange Turd autocratically upturned and trampled on every presidential norm for four years, from calling the press
"the enemy of the people", though confiscating an official translator's notes of a meeting with a hostile foreign leader, to blackmailing a friendly foreign leader to get political dirt on his own opponents. However, I of all people understand that different people have different breaking points.
It is now apparent just how close the USA came to the end of its democracy. Pence was the only real individual with any power that stood between your continuing Democracy and the massive civil unrest that could have resulted in the USA being under Authoritarian governance for the first time in 246 years.... but at the critical juncture, even after The Fat Orange Turd whipped his MAGA morons into a murderous frenzy to pressure him into overturning the election, Pence was unwavering and made the correct decisions.
We should at least give him some credit for this.