Over the weekend, Vice President Mike Pence responded to the Charlottesville, Va., violence in strong and perhaps even presidential terms. White supremacists should “be pushed out of the public debate entirely,” Pence said, discredited completely as “the hate groups that they are.”
But then rather than slamming white supremacists some more, Pence inexplicably decided to blast the press who “spent more time criticizing the president’s words than they did criticizing those that perpetrated the violence.”
When leadership was needed most, the vice president started whining about how mean the media was being to his boss. This, of course, is a ridiculous diversion and shows the pains Pence is willing to go to temper the excesses and supply the insufficiencies of President Trump.
A quick review of the editorial pages of conservative outlets should be enough to put that claim to rest. The Washington Examiner called the preppy neo-Nazis “racists.” The Wall Street Journal accused that alt-right mob of spreading “the poison of identity politics.” And National Review mocked the white supremacists as a “pimply-faced tiki-torch gang.”
None offered an expose on that evil because, frankly, condemnation of street thugs is easy enough. Elsewhere and earlier others have explored the origins of these groups. With three dead and as dozens lay in the hospital injured, though, there’s little reason to delve into the philosophically-shallow minds of racists. Condemn them and move on without giving them an audience.
Unfortunately for the country and his own political stock, Trump didn’t do that. Instead, the president gave a wishy-washy, overly vague condemnation of violence generally. For a man so famous for being so blunt, Trump side-stepped any mention of white supremacy down in Charlottesville.
The rest of the GOP conference didn’t make the same mistake. Former primary rivals Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., easily overshadowed the president with stronger statements. And Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chided that “we should call evil by its name.”
Still, Pence defended Trump by slamming the media on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday morning.
“Many in the media spend a lot of time focusing on what the president said and instead of criticizing those who brought that hatred and violence to the streets of Charlottesville,” Pence said.
And again, he wasted a presidential opportunity.
Each time Pence wastes breath attacking the press rather than white supremacists, he overshadows his own leadership.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
