I need some help fleshing this out. Feel free to add to it.
Acting Secretary of the Department of Defense Chris Miller thanked VP Pence for efforts in "most complex military operations this country has ever conducted".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-jxqwTWkuw
Miller to VP Pence: “We’ve been through some stuff. We’ve gone through some of the most complex military operations this country has ever conducted...thank you for your leadership... character... selfless service...”
That was December 2020. Three weeks later Pence certified the 2020 election, and the aftermath of that was the passage of the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022. That act specified that the vice president's role at the joint session of congress to count electoral votes is ministerial and that he or she cannot solely adjudicate disputes over electors.
https://ballotpedia.org/Electoral_Count_Reform_and_Presidential_Transition_Improvement_Act_of_2022
That bring us to 2024, and now Kommublabla is VP and will be presiding over the joint session of Congress to certify the election. ECRPTIA has effectively neutralized the VP in any disputes arising from the count. We know the demonrats have something up their sleeve and are waiting to strike. They've been too quiet since Tuesday but have made it clear they will pull every dirty trick to not certify the election. I'm wondering how ECRPTIA plays into their scheme.
We've debated whether Pence is a white hat, black hat, or gray hat. If this is all part of the plan, I'm of the mind he's a gray hat who leans white. We know he was aligned with Paul Ryan at one point. However, we've seen plenty of people come out of the dark into the light. Maybe he's one of them but has stayed behind the scenes?
Anyway, my thoughts on this are kind of scattered and I find it difficult to assemble the pieces. What say you, my fellow frogs?
I don’t buy that either/or. The third possibility is Trump is who we think he is and he is not all powerful, so he had to make compromises along the way. I think it is clear this is true because if all the traitors his had surrounding him in the White House his first term. Trump has publicly admitted this
Trump had to address having traitors all around him for a few reasons.
One is because that question left a notable number of voters "on the fence" about Trump. I know people who are "Red Team" voters historically, but couldn't get over the question of how Trump had all of these lame ducks around him.
Another reason - from my perspective, was an acknowledgment, for anyone who needed it - that he is aware - and why they will be seeing him perform that process much differently this time.