Vice President Mike Pence did his job Wednesday night.
Delivering the longest speech of either convention so far, Pence portrayed a picture of this nation, and Donald Trump’s leadership of it, that simply does not exist. For 37 minutes, the Vice President presented a perverted version of the state of this country in front of a mostly unmasked and not-physically-distanced crowd at Fort McHenry in Baltimore to cap the third night of the Republican National Convention.
To hear Pence’s obsequious narrative, Donald Trump has defeated the coronavirus, as 180,000 Americans lay dead. With many more burials still to come, Pence announced that his own wife, Karen, would soon be heading back into the classroom.
Pence, who leads a COVID-19 task force that has in recent weeks ignored and smeared our nation’s top scientific experts, declared Trump’s “unprecedented action,” saved lives.
It was an evening full of Republican revisionist history.
Female speakers, including Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, told Americans how much Donald Trump supports women. This, of course, is a man who has been accused of rape and sexual harassment by scores of them.
Pence told the nation that Trump supports the military, but he made no mention of the president’s silence when it comes to Russia paying bounties to kill our personnel in Afghanistan.
Pence told the nation that Trump destroyed ISIS, but he made no mention of how he abandoned our Kurdish allies in the region.
Pence told the nation that Trump built the greatest economy in the world, but he made no mention of the millions of Americans who are out of work and receiving miniscule unemployment benefits.
Pence told the nation that Trump is the Law and Order candidate, but he made no mention of the lawlessness of his own administration.
Pence repeated oft-told lies about Joe Biden wanting to defund law enforcement, and he promised a safe-and-effective COVID-19 vaccine would be available by the end of the year, without any evidence whatsoever.
“Donald Trump has set America on a path of freedom and opportunity,” Pence said. “Joe Biden would set America on a path of socialism and decline.”
The reality is quite different. Donald Trump and Mike Pence inherited a booming economy from Barack Obama and Joe Biden. They have since run it into the ground through their mismanagement and ineptitude.
“To bring America all the way back, we need four more years of Donald Trump in the White House,” Pence said.
God help us all if that comes to fruition.