Berl Falbaum
With this column, we announce two more winners (losers) of our distinguished (despicable) Pence Outstanding Hypocrite Award (POHA), bringing the number who have received a POHA to 14.
We can say without equivocation that none of the previous losers was so deserving of this highly coveted (despised) honor. The latest two winners are the second and third two-time dis-honorees (Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was the first two-time winner).
The second two-time winner of our dis-honor role is Donald Trump’s choice for his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. He stands heads-and-shoulders above the rest (OK, not by much; they are all pretty much moral/ethical degenerates whose moral/ethical compass always points south.)
Here are some of things Vance said about the Republican nominee for president:
--Vance said he was a “never-Trump guy,” adding “I never liked him,” and exclaimed, “My God, what an idiot.”
--“I can’t stomach Donald Trump. I think he’s noxious” and once called him “America’s Hitler.”
--In 2016, Vance described Trump as “a terrible candidate” and a “cynical asshole like Nixon.”
--Trump was “cultural heroin” and his “actual policy proposals, such as they are, range from immoral to absurd.”
--"He (Trump) makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc.”
--He even expressed admiration for President Obama and, in 2016, said he might vote for Hillary Clinton or a third-party candidate.
--In an article in Atlantic Magazine, headlined, “Opioid of the Masses,” Vance wrote: “In 2016, during this election season, it appears that many Americans have reached for a new pain reliever. It enters minds, not through lungs
or veins, but through eyes and ears, and its name is Donald Trump.” Then he added Trump was not the solution.
Vance has deleted all his negative social media posts on Trump.
His plaque in our POHA Hall of Shame will be right next to a previous Trump vice president, Mike Pence, the first plaques visitors will see when entering the inner-sanctum.
Which brings us to our thrid two-time loser, Nikki Haley, a Trump challenger for the GOP nomination in the primaries.
She “won” her first POHA when she dropped out of the race but pledged to vote for Trump, whom she described in the primaries in terms similar to those of Vance.
Then she spoke at the GOP convention, and exclaimed that she is in full support of Trump’s nomination which, she said in the campaign, would be like committing suicide for the country. We can conclude she has a death wish.
“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” she “proudly” told the convention, adding, “For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump.”
Now to some of the things she said about him. They rival some of Vance’s descriptions of the GOP leader.
Trump, she said, at one point, is “unhinged,” “unsafe to be president,” and “unqualified to be president of the United States.”
After January 6, she criticized Trump, saying, “He let us down. We shouldn’t have followed him…and we should never have listened to him.”
She also has questioned his mental fitness, after Trump confused her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“The concern I have is – I’m not saying anything derogatory,” she said while saying something derogatory, “but when you’re dealing with the pressures of a presidency, you can’t have someone else that we question whether they’re mentally fit to do this.”
Asked whether Trump would abide by the Constitution if elected, she said, “I don’t know, I don’t…I don’t know…I mean you always want to think someone will but I don’t know.”
When Trump mocked Haley’s husband, Michael, who serves in the South Carolina Army National Guard, and was on a year-long deployment in Africa with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Haley said:
“If you don’t respect our military, how should we think you’re going to respect them when it comes to times of war, and prevent war…If you don’t have respect for our military and our veterans, God help us all if that’s the case.
“He showed that with that kind of disrespect for the military, he’s not qualified to be the president of the United States, because I don’t trust him to protect them.”
With her total embrace of Trump, she apparently also doesn’t remember Trump’s racially-charged comments about her heritage.
Trump repeatedly referred to Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, as “Niambra” and suggested, falsely, that disqualified her to run for president.
Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa.
She always used her middle name and took the surname “Haley” after her marriage in 1996. In response at the time, Haley said:
“I’ll let people decide what he means by his attacks. What we know is, look, he’s clearly insecure if he goes and does these temper tantrums…”
Here is what she said about politicians who flipped-flopped on Trump (as she and Vance have done):
“Many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump privately dread him. They know what a disaster he’s been and will continue to be for our party. They’re just too afraid to say it out loud. Well, I’m not afraid to say the hard truths out loud. I feel no need to kiss the ring.”
During a presidential debate in the GOP primaries, she was one of six candidates who raised her hand when asked by the moderator if they would support Trump even if he were a convicted felon. He has been convicted on 34 felony counts.
Vance and Haley give the word “hypocrisy” and entirely new meaning.
—————
Berl Falbaum is a longtime political writer and author of several books.
We can say without equivocation that none of the previous losers was so deserving of this highly coveted (despised) honor. The latest two winners are the second and third two-time dis-honorees (Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was the first two-time winner).
The second two-time winner of our dis-honor role is Donald Trump’s choice for his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. He stands heads-and-shoulders above the rest (OK, not by much; they are all pretty much moral/ethical degenerates whose moral/ethical compass always points south.)
Here are some of things Vance said about the Republican nominee for president:
--Vance said he was a “never-Trump guy,” adding “I never liked him,” and exclaimed, “My God, what an idiot.”
--“I can’t stomach Donald Trump. I think he’s noxious” and once called him “America’s Hitler.”
--In 2016, Vance described Trump as “a terrible candidate” and a “cynical asshole like Nixon.”
--Trump was “cultural heroin” and his “actual policy proposals, such as they are, range from immoral to absurd.”
--"He (Trump) makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc.”
--He even expressed admiration for President Obama and, in 2016, said he might vote for Hillary Clinton or a third-party candidate.
--In an article in Atlantic Magazine, headlined, “Opioid of the Masses,” Vance wrote: “In 2016, during this election season, it appears that many Americans have reached for a new pain reliever. It enters minds, not through lungs
or veins, but through eyes and ears, and its name is Donald Trump.” Then he added Trump was not the solution.
Vance has deleted all his negative social media posts on Trump.
His plaque in our POHA Hall of Shame will be right next to a previous Trump vice president, Mike Pence, the first plaques visitors will see when entering the inner-sanctum.
Which brings us to our thrid two-time loser, Nikki Haley, a Trump challenger for the GOP nomination in the primaries.
She “won” her first POHA when she dropped out of the race but pledged to vote for Trump, whom she described in the primaries in terms similar to those of Vance.
Then she spoke at the GOP convention, and exclaimed that she is in full support of Trump’s nomination which, she said in the campaign, would be like committing suicide for the country. We can conclude she has a death wish.
“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” she “proudly” told the convention, adding, “For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump.”
Now to some of the things she said about him. They rival some of Vance’s descriptions of the GOP leader.
Trump, she said, at one point, is “unhinged,” “unsafe to be president,” and “unqualified to be president of the United States.”
After January 6, she criticized Trump, saying, “He let us down. We shouldn’t have followed him…and we should never have listened to him.”
She also has questioned his mental fitness, after Trump confused her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“The concern I have is – I’m not saying anything derogatory,” she said while saying something derogatory, “but when you’re dealing with the pressures of a presidency, you can’t have someone else that we question whether they’re mentally fit to do this.”
Asked whether Trump would abide by the Constitution if elected, she said, “I don’t know, I don’t…I don’t know…I mean you always want to think someone will but I don’t know.”
When Trump mocked Haley’s husband, Michael, who serves in the South Carolina Army National Guard, and was on a year-long deployment in Africa with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Haley said:
“If you don’t respect our military, how should we think you’re going to respect them when it comes to times of war, and prevent war…If you don’t have respect for our military and our veterans, God help us all if that’s the case.
“He showed that with that kind of disrespect for the military, he’s not qualified to be the president of the United States, because I don’t trust him to protect them.”
With her total embrace of Trump, she apparently also doesn’t remember Trump’s racially-charged comments about her heritage.
Trump repeatedly referred to Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, as “Niambra” and suggested, falsely, that disqualified her to run for president.
Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa.
She always used her middle name and took the surname “Haley” after her marriage in 1996. In response at the time, Haley said:
“I’ll let people decide what he means by his attacks. What we know is, look, he’s clearly insecure if he goes and does these temper tantrums…”
Here is what she said about politicians who flipped-flopped on Trump (as she and Vance have done):
“Many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump privately dread him. They know what a disaster he’s been and will continue to be for our party. They’re just too afraid to say it out loud. Well, I’m not afraid to say the hard truths out loud. I feel no need to kiss the ring.”
During a presidential debate in the GOP primaries, she was one of six candidates who raised her hand when asked by the moderator if they would support Trump even if he were a convicted felon. He has been convicted on 34 felony counts.
Vance and Haley give the word “hypocrisy” and entirely new meaning.
—————
Berl Falbaum is a longtime political writer and author of several books.
