Could January 6th be the Achilles Heel for Donald Trump? Mike Pence Super PAC Ad Invokes January 6: For those wondering whether Pence’s presidential effort would reference the events of January 6, the pro-Pence Super PAC has released an ad that’s almost entirely about that day.
Donald Trump Has a New Problem: Remember January 6th?
When it comes to the idea of Mike Pence’s presidential candidacy, there’s something of an elephant in the room: Pence is running against Donald Trump, the man who he not only served as vice president but whose supporters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” after Pence refused to throw out electoral votes on January 6, 2021.
Pence is indeed running for president, filing paperwork last week and visiting Iowa this week, including for a televised CNN town hall.
And this week, the pro-Pence Super PAC, Committed to America, introduced a 60-second spot that was focused almost entirely on January 6.
“A weak man appeases a mob. A man of courage stands up to them,” the Twitter caption reads for the video. “Our first ad in support of Mike Pence for president.”
The ad itself features footage of the mob on January 6, including references to “a mob, shouting for him to die.”
The ad aims to draw a contrast between Trump and Pence.
“That day, one man failed a test of leadership, while another stood tall.”
The ad also features shots of Dylan Mulvaney and urban looting, while referencing “a woke mob trying to take our freedom,” while touting Pence as someone who “won’t flinch, who won’t try to cut deals with our values.”
The question will be whether this message will carry with the Republican primary electorate, a large percentage of which considers Pence a traitor due to his actions on January 6, while also believing the Capitol insurrection itself was either a “false flag,” or entirely justified.
In that CNN town hall, there was another example of Pence trying to thread the needle of what it means to run against Donald Trump. When asked about the possibility that Trump could be indicted in the documents case, Pence urged the Justice Department to not indict the former president, stating that it would “send a terrible message to the wider world.” He did, however, agree that “no one is above the law.”
Pence, the Justice Department announced last week, will not be charged in relation to the classified documents that were found in his residence in Indiana. Pence cooperated with the government investigation of the documents in his possession, while Trump, it appears, did not, which is why the former president faces possible indictment.
The former vice president, in the CNN appearance, also criticized Trump on a variety of fronts, from his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the First Step Act, the criminal justice reform law signed by Trump in 2018.
Polling Problems
The latest tracking poll from Morning Consult, released on Tuesday, had Pence in third place with 7 percent support, far behind Trump (56 percent) and Ron DeSantis (22 percent), although ahead of already declared candidates Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, and Vivek Ramaswamy, who each have 3 percent. Pence had been at 5 percent in recent weeks, indicating that his impending declaration gave him a small bump.
It was the first tracking poll released after the entrance into the race of DeSantis and Pence and arrived days before the formal declaration by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie that he is running as well. Christie is now polling at 1 percent, after not appearing in the poll previously.
The Florida governor doesn’t appear to have gotten a bump from his own campaign launch.
“DeSantis trails Trump by 34 percentage points among GOP primary voters (22% to 56%), similar to his standing before he launched his campaign on May 24,” the post announcing the poll said. “A fourth of potential primary voters reported hearing something negative about DeSantis over the past week, the highest share since tracking began in late November.”
Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
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