In his awkward, halting joint interview with his new running mate, Mike Pence, Sunday night, Donald Trump offered a preview of what could be a very uncomfortable week in Cleveland for Republican standard bearers.
Trump has tried to obfuscate the lack of political star power in the convention lineup by putting his progeny in speaker seats usually occupied by the likes of past Republican presidents (the only ones living refuse to attend). But he’ll need more than blood relatives to spare him the indignity of being left at the altar by party insiders.
If there was anything redeeming in the 60 Minutes interview, it was the hope that Pence can translate Trump’s racially tinged blather into something more palatable to party operatives.
Heading into the convention starting Monday in Cleveland, where each day will have a “Make America ____ Again” theme (perhaps the most ironic of which is “Make America One Again”), Pence will have his work cut out for him when it comes to converting the Republican luminaries to Trump’s cause.
After all, George W Bush’s decision not to attend this year violates the unwritten rule of modern history under which all former presidents have attended their party’s convention directly after leaving office. And the last two Republican nominees have followed suit.
It’s hard to blame them. Trump dubbed one of those nominees, the former prisoner of war John McCain, “not a hero” – as the real estate mogul explained, “I like people who weren’t captured” – while he dubbed Bush’s brother Jeb “low energy” and overly reliant on his “mommy”.
That’s supposedly where Pence comes to the rescue.
The mild-mannered midwesterner is known for his Christian values and discipline of message, particularly with regard to his anti-abortion crusade. And if his appearance on 60 Minutes Sunday is any indication, serving as a political ambassador to needlessly spurned Republican authority figures is not the only place where he’ll come in handy.
Pence’s fluency in the art of political interviewing, which involves saying what you want to say rather than answering the question asked, was on full display in his sit-down with Lesley Stahl at Trump’s residence in New York.
When questioned on whether he would support waterboarding as an interrogation technique as Trump has previously, for instance, Pence talked in reasonably eloquent circles for so long that his interviewer, after interjecting 10 times ineffectually, was reduced to asking, “Have you answered me?”
He responded, “I have.”
Another time, when asked about Trump’s notorious plan to ban all Muslims from entering the country, a move Pence has previously called “offensive and unconstitutional”, he engaged in a sort of abstract political thought experiment.
“When the circumstances arise where I have a difference on policy or on presentation,” he offered obscurely, he would “walk into the president’s office, close the door” and say something vaguely noble or heartfelt.
Never mind that Pence had just done the opposite on the concrete issue at hand, walking back his criticism of Trump’s Muslim ban shortly after being picked as his vice-presidential candidate; he’d rather paint a little picture of his heart-to-heart with President Trump about nothing in particular.
Trump, meanwhile, was as braggadocious as ever in their first joint interview, referring to himself in the third person and saying very earnestly to Stahl at one point, “I think I’m much more humble than you would understand.”
Though Trump insisted the reason he had chosen Pence had to do with “chemistry”, the two men have yet to display much chumminess. And in a weekend press conference announcing Pence as his running mate, Trump talked almost entirely about himself.
Some reports indicate just before the announcement on Friday, Trump tried to get out of selecting Pence at all, though campaign aides deny it.
Other rumors are easier to kill. For as long as Trump’s been running, for instance, there’s been talk of a Republican insurrection at the convention this week. But with a formidable Hillary Clinton to beat and no viable next-best options, such talk looks increasingly idle.
Instead, the lead-up to this week has suggested another more straightforward path: that the party will seek to make adult sentences out of Trump’s elementary babble, channelling his violence-inducing anger into a political message that party insiders can actually decipher, and maybe even endorse.
Though Trump may not like the guy doing the translating, and would clearly rather have the stage to himself, he seems to recognize Pence is a good candidate for the job. And he made it clear a number of times Sunday.
“I like that answer,” Trump said to Pence’s response on enhanced interrogation. Another time, though it was admittedly in response to Pence praising him rather than policy, Trump offered an effusive, “I love what he just said.”
The week is just beginning in Cleveland, but if Pence and his people can continue to spin the straw of Trump’s bluster into messaging gold, the Republican party may have, in the nick of time, found its Rumpelstiltskin.
