Slate on Pence "Trump's Prop"
Mike Pence started out as a powerful veep. He's now Trump's pathetic culture war pawn.
By Mark Joseph Stern
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/10/mike_pence_has_become_trump_s_pathetic_culture_war_prop.html
On Sunday afternoon, Vice President Mike Pence walked out of an NFL game after several San Francisco 49ers players knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality. This “spontaneous” move had been planned in advance. Shortly after Pence’s walkout, NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard reported that the vice president’s press pool had been told ahead of time that he might leave early. President Donald Trump then confirmed via Twitter that he had directed Pence to walk out “if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country.” Given that players from the 49ers, Colin Kaepernick’s favorite team, have kneeled before every game this year, this entire incident appears to have been a pricey, pre-planned stunt designed to fuel the flames of Trump’s crusade against the NFL.
It’s not surprising that Trump would seek to prolong a racially charged dispute in which he believes he holds the upper hand. It is more startling to see him deploy his vice president as a pawn in a culture war of his own creation. Pence did not take this job to perform demeaning tasks for the pleasure of his boss; he was expected to use his ties to the GOP establishment to help push Trump’s agenda through Congress. But following the administration’s failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, Trump seems to be repurposing Pence—and, in the process, testing the limits of his loyalty.
The bond between Trump and Pence has never been especially strong. Trump resisted choosing the former Indiana governor and congressman as his running mate, finally assenting to his selection at the behest of then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort. (Remember that guy?) Even then, Trump tried to drop Pence after he’d been offered the position. Pence performed ably in the role of generic Republican, shoring up support among those who doubted Trump’s GOP bona fides. After the election, Pence fulfilled an important role, leading a presidential transition team that included future national security adviser Mike Flynn.
It’s still not clear whether Pence knew at the time that Flynn had spoken to the Russian ambassador about the possibility that the U.S. might ease sanctions against Vladimir Putin et al. Pence first denied the sanctions conversation had occurred, then claimed Flynn had misled him. In reality, Trump also misled his veep; the president knew Flynn had lied to Pence, but didn’t inform his vice president for weeks. Although he kept quiet in public, Pence was reportedly furious that Trump had kept him in the dark and had allowed him to state a falsehood on TV. Basically, he was mad that Trump had used him.
snip - much more to read at the above link
= new reply since forum marked as read
how to make Trump and Pence disappear from their event.
Take a knee!!!! 
