Mike Pence’s political career is over: ‘Trump supporters think he’s the Antichrist’
Mike Pence. (AFP via Getty/ BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI)
Mike Pence’s political career is officially over according to prominent Republicans, with one declaring: “Trump supporters think he’s the Antichrist”.
It is widely believed that Pence is setting the stage to run for president in the 2024 US election, and has recently been trying to gather support from religious, conservative leaders and organisations.
But the anti-LGBT+ former vice president’s early odds aren’t looking good.
In Sunday’s (18 July) Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll, an informal poll of attendees on who they want to see run in 2024, Pence drew just one per cent of the vote.
Last week, a nationwide poll of Republican voters by pollster Tony Fabrizio saw Pence trail miserably behind Donald Trump, if he were to run, and Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
On Friday (16 July), Pence returned to Iowa for the first time since the presidential election to speak at the annual Family Leadership Summit, which works to help the “Church become the salt and light Christ intended – in the home, in the community, and in government”.
While Pence received a warm welcome from the summit of conservative Christians, there weren’t many in attendance that said they could see him as president.
Raymond Harre, the GOP’s vice chair in Iowa’s Scott County, told Politico: “I don’t imagine he’d have a whole lot of support. There are some Trump supporters who think he’s the Antichrist.”
Pence is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to Republican voters.
Those who never liked Trump want to distance themselves from the his vice president, while Trump fanatics see Pence as a “traitor” following his ceremonial role in certifying Joe Biden’s election victory, shortly after Donald Trump incited the storming of the US Capitol in January, 2021.
During the riots, extremists even chanted the words: “Hang Mike Pence.”
Trump’s former campaign strategist Steve Bannon told Politico: “MAGA is maniacally focused on 3 November, and they understand Pence betrayed them.
“He is being shunned and erased from the MAGA movement, and it hasn’t even started.”
He added: “Mike Pence’s political career is over… It’s done.”
Mike Pence was recently heckled by religious conservatives while trying to give a speech
Just last month, Mike Pence was relentlessly heckled while trying to give a speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Orlando, Florida, which describes itself as “the nation’s premier pro-faith, pro-family event”.
During an appearance at the conservative Christian Faith & Freedom conference, former Vice President Mike Pence was heckled by the crowd with cries of "TRAITOR. pic.twitter.com/3IErdp8EYL
— S.P Santhosh Kumar (@UNITOFBHARAT) June 18, 2021
Although Pence attempted to redeem himself among Trump fanatics by claiming that the former president showed “what Republicans can accomplish when we stand firm on conservative principles and don’t back down”, at least one audience member had to be escorted out by security and several more repeatedly yelled the words “traitor” and “freedom”.
