Every Republican running for office should be asked about the question Pence dodged
Wednesday’s vice-presidential debate was a calmer affair than the presidential debate that President Donald Trump blew up last week, but both candidates dodged questions about the future of the nation’s political system — questions that would have been almost unthinkable not so long ago.
The first came when Vice President Mike Pence challenged Sen. Kamala Harris, DCalif., to say whether she and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden favor expanding the Supreme Court. Instead of answering, Harris criticized Republicans’ hypocritical efforts to jam Judge Amy Coney
Barrett onto the court at the last minute, and she lamented the quality of the district and appeals court judges Trump has pushed through with the help of a pliant GOP Senate.
Certainly, Republicans have played dirty on judges. But voters are entitled to know how Biden and Harris think Democrats should respond. Is expanding the court the only justified answer, or would it lead to further destabilizing tit for tat? The candidates should not duck a question so consequential for the nation’s political system.
Yet the question Pence dodged at the end of the debate goes beyond consequential. It is existential for America’s democracy. Moderator Susan Page asked the vice president what he would do if Trump refused to accept a peaceful transfer of power, should Biden win the election. Pence responded by attacking Democrats for impeaching Trump, rehashing conspiracy theories about the Obama administration and even going after Hillary Clinton. While he expressed “confidence” in the election, he only did so as he insisted that Trump would win, and he repeated the dangerous myth that mass mail-in voting risks rampant fraud.
Rather than assure Americans that their vice president’s first loyalty is to the republic, Pence inflamed fears that he and Trump would conjure outlandish excuses for a loss — the Democrats cheated; foreign countries printed up fake ballots; state officials conspired to steal the vote — and encourage their supporters to deny the election’s legitimacy. Their irresponsibility could lead to irreparable fissures and even civil strife. Trump has set the stage with his constant attacks on ballot procedures that were not controversial until he decided they might enable more people to vote against him. Now the vice president has shown that he will play along.
Harris’s silence on courtpacking is disrespectful to voters, but Pence’s failure to commit to accepting the election results is unconscionable. One concerns how the nation’s democratic institutions might evolve. The other concerns whether the nation will have a democracy at all. The fact that Trump and Pence both failed to answer what should be an easy question is an outrage that every other Republican running this year should be challenged to address.