While it’s clear that Pence is appalled by many aspects of Trump’s personality and character, he’s so keen to protect his own status-and eager to maintain the Trump base-that he would leave no trace of his true sentiment. Michael D’Antonio: We’re certain that the vice president did not sit at a keyboard to write the column, but it’s quite likely that members of his staff participated. Jennifer Bardi: First, I’ve got to ask: Is Mike Pence the author of the anonymous New York Times op-ed? (And in some cases the wealthy elite and conservative Christians are one in the same.) In the following email exchange, I had the opportunity to ask D’Antonio about this shadow presidency and how we can get more people to see past the bland to recognize what Pence’s zealotry could mean. At the same time he’s painted as a religious zealot, laser focused on becoming president to usher in a regressive, biblically ordained government while still satisfying big business and the wealthy elite that helped get him where he is. Driven as much by theology as personal ambition, Pence is now positioned to seize the big prize-the presidency-and use it to fashion a nation more pleasing to his god and corporate sponsors.In their new book, The Shadow President: The Truth about Mike Pence, journalists Michael D’Antonio and Peter Eisner do a very thorough job characterizing the vice president’s carefully crafted blandness-someone who’s thoughtful, concise, and pious, a family man with good hair and silent strength (right out of Trump’s “central casting”). They reveal how he used his time as rightwing radio star to build connections with powerful donors how he was a lackluster lawmaker in Congress but a prodigious fundraiser from the GOP's billionaire benefactors and how, once he locked in his views on the issues-anti-gay, pro-gun, anti-abortion, pro big-business-he became laser-focused on his own pursuit of power.Īs The Shadow President reveals, Mike Pence is the most important and powerful Christian Right politician America has ever seen. In this landmark biography, D'Antonio and Eisner follow the path Pence followed from Catholic Democrat to conservative evangelical Republican. Pence's drive for power explains why he shocked his allies by lending Christian credibility to a scandal-plagued candidate like Trump. Behind his self-proclaimed humility and self-abasing deference, however, hides a man whose own presidential ambitions have blazed since high school.
Little-known outside his home state until Donald Trump made him his running mate, Mike Pence - who proclaims himself a Christian first, a conservative second, and a Republican third - has long worn a carefully-constructed mask of Midwestern nice.
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