Former Vice President Mike Pence, still running away from the angry MAGA mob Donald Trump tried to sic on him, thinks he is running for the Republican nomination for president. Like a lost dog, Pence followed Trump’s lead and went onto CNN’s sinking ship to have his own kid-gloves-style town hall with host Dana Bash. It went the way you might imagine, with Pence spouting platitudes in his patriarchal style of knowingness—with almost no pushback.
During the standing question and answer section, he was asked to talk about crime. Pence opened by blathering about how he wouldn’t “defund” the police, as the concept has “emboldened” criminals. Since nobody has defunded the police, and in most cases only increased police funding, Pence need not worry. Then, like all conservatives and racists before him, Pence explained that we needed to get even more punishing in our punishments for crimes, and Chicago was the reason we needed to do that.
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Claiming his “heart breaks for Chicago,” Pence said that instead of worrying about any actual policy ideas on a crime bill, we needed to go after Chicago criminals by “giving our states and cities the resources to restore law and order to our streets.” The sound you hear is a Fox News talking point of hot stale wind pressing against the buttons of Pence’s suit.
Bash decided to do the simplest fact check in the history of fact checks—to devastating effect. “Just for the record, the ATF data showed that more than half the recovered guns used to commit crimes in Illinois in 2021, you know where they came from? Indiana.” Pence looked like a man trying to fart quietly so he doesn’t explode. Bash was right, too, as you can confirm here and here.
As for who law enforcement needs to get tougher on? Maybe the people breaking the meager laws for selling guns should be held to account for not being able to follow them. As reports have shown, those gun sellers don’t receive the “law and order” conservatives like Pence so love to preachify about. Enjoy.
And a response:
We do, too!
