CHARLESTON, West Virginia — Vice President Mike Pence escaped Washington’s febrile atmosphere on Friday to deliver a eulogy at the memorial service for Gen. Chuck Yeager, paying tribute to the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound and “one of America’s greatest heroes.”
He traveled to Charleston, West Virginia, as part of a busy schedule that will also keep him out of Washington over the weekend.
It meant he cut a somber but relaxed figure as he left behind questions about his relationship with President Trump, even as fresh details emerged of the riot that engulfed the United States Capitol a week earlier and the way the mob tried to hunt down the vice president and his family.
Trump has said nothing about Pence since he chewed out his normally loyal lieutenant on Twitter for refusing to follow orders and reject the results of the Electoral College.
The result was their first public falling out after almost four years of Pence’s high-wire act, as he carefully navigated the demands of a quixotic boss who frequently tested his loyalty.
A West Wing insider said people may finally have gotten a glimpse behind the curtain of how their relationship really worked.
“It was probably the most public moment, but there’s a sense … perhaps that that example can be extrapolated to many more private moments in the past four years,” said the source.
It leaves Pence to ponder an uncertain political future. The close association with Trump was seen as a way of broadening his conservative, evangelical base for a tilt at the 2024 Republican nomination — but that was before he told the president he believed the Constitution gave him no unilateral authority to reject Electoral College votes.
The two met for an hour in the Oval Office on Monday to repair the damage done. They met again on Thursday as they pursue very different conclusions to their time in office.
While Trump spent much of the week fuming about Democratic efforts to oust him from office, Pence has maintained a busy schedule. He chaired a meeting of the coronavirus task force, led a teleconference call with governors on the COVID-19 recovery, and attended a briefing on security for next week’s inauguration.
He is in California and New York over the weekend.
And on Friday morning, he walked down the steps of Air Force Two in Charleston, beside the widow of Yeager as she returned his remains to his home state.
He later led tributes at a memorial service for the pioneering aviator who died in December, recalling the exploits that made him a hero to millions when he broke the sound barrier.
“At just 24 years of age, Chuck Yeager became an inspiration to an entire generation of American pilots,” he said. “From that day forward, they tried to imitate his daring maneuvers, his unshakable confidence.”
Yet, even as he spoke, fresh details were emerging of how close to danger he was last Wednesday, when rioters, encouraged by the president to march on Congress, attacked the Capitol building while Pence, his wife, and his daughter were on the Senate floor. They were spirited to a secure room, missing the violent mob by a matter of seconds, according to an official familiar with his movements.
One aide was only a matter of feet from protesters when the Secret Service intervened.
More chilling, still, the pro-Trump crowd aimed to “capture and assassinate elected officials,” according to documents lodged by federal prosecutors.
They said Jacob Chansley, photographed in a furry, horned hat, climbed to the podium, where Pence had been moments earlier, and wrote a threatening note to the vice president. “It’s only a matter of time,” it said.
Tom Lobianco, a Pence biographer, said the vice president’s aides had long chafed at Trump’s loyalty tests, but the actions of the mob would have deeply shaken his often unflappable lieutenant.
“One thing to understand about Pence — and his advisers and friends have brought this up repeatedly in the past: He doesn’t get angry often, but when he thinks people are threatening his wife and children, he gets very angry,” he said.
