Former Vice President Mike Pence broke what would have been a huge story on Fox “News” had he been, say, Kamala Harris refusing to endorse Joe Biden for a second term.
On Friday, Vice President Pence was asked by Fox News host Martha MacCallum if he’d be endorsing his former president. “I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign,” Pence replied.
This is a BFD on its own but also because Pence made this announcement on Fox. He obviously wanted to send a message to its right-wing viewers that a conservative who served very closely with Trump thinks he is unfit for office and to give those viewers permission, if not encouragement, not to vote for Trump, too.
Crooks and Liars’ Karoli Kuns noted that Pence was the first former VP in over 80 years to run against his own boss for the presidency. She also pointed out that he had previously pledged to support the party nominee even if he was convicted.
So, big news, right? Not on Fox “News” it wasn’t. Media Matters crunched the numbers and found Fox gave the announcement 4 minutes of airtime through Monday. MSNBC devoted at least 1 hour and 14 minutes, with CNN devoting a similar 1 hour, 19 minutes, at least.
Those 4 minutes on Fox included host Neil Cavuto briefly discussing it, Special Report including the news in its roundtable discussion, only, and host Laura Ingraham attacking Pence, saying he “might as well” be “working directly for Biden,” Media Matters reported.
I found an article on FoxNews.com with the news and the 8:23 video of Pence’s appearance on The Story with Martha MacCallum. But “reporter” Charles Creitz covered up and whitewashed some important details in favor of making Trump look better:
Pence, whose relationship soured with Trump after the January 6 riots wherein the president faulted him for refusing to send disputed electoral slates back to state legislatures in his then-role as president of the Senate, said his announcement, however, should not come as a shock.
Creitz left out the fact that Trump did nothing as his insurrectionist supporters chanted “Hang Mike Pence.” In fact, there has been reporting that Trump “expressed support for hanging his vice president, according to three people familiar with the matter.” And, really, it wasn’t that Pence “refused to send disputed electoral slates back to state legislatures” but that Trump was demanding Pence ignore the Constitution, then was OK with him being lynched for upholding it.
Yet Creitz suggested that it’s just a matter of opinion as to what Pence had the legal authority to do:
Pence recounted how his presidential bid laid out the differences between himself and his former boss, and repeated his contention he did not have the right under the Electoral Count Act of 1887 – as Trump and some proponents claimed – to send disputed elector slates back to state legislators.
And, of course, Creitz failed to mention that Pence is just the latest and highest-level member of Trump’s cabinet who has refused to endorse him. The Washington Post lists former Defense Secretaries Jim Mattis and Mark T. Esper, former attorney general William P. Barr and former top aides John Kelly and Mick Mulvaney, among many others. Still others “have more quietly steered clear,” The Post added.
But Creitz and his colleagues know it’s their job not to report the news but to use it for political advantage as much as possible.
You can see some of Trump’s closest and highest officials denounce Trump below, via The Washington Post. Underneath is Pence’s refusal to endorse Trump below, from the March 15, 2024 The Story with Martha MacCallum.