If there was meant to be an applause, God would have provided one
Mike Pence is a deeply religious man. The vice-president of the United States is a staunch Republican and firm believer in the bible and as such strongly supports turning the other cheek, treating others how he would like to be treated, low taxes on the wealthy and preventing women from having autonomy over their own bodies (maybe those last two are somewhere deep in the New Testament).
Pence was extolling those virtues at a recent speech at the Munich Security Conference, where a number of major figures including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde also spoke.
As the second-in-command of the world’s leading superpower, Pence could have reasonably expected to be given a warm welcome at the gathering, but the current US administration is not a normal one and these are not normal times.
As he embarked on his speech, Pence told the assembled crowd that he brought with him “greetings from the 45th president of the United States of America — President Donald Trump”.
He paused for applause, but unfortunately it was not forthcoming. Instead all there was was dense and impenetrable silence and awkwardness, like the millisecond after you respond “good, you?” to someone saying “hello”.
Speaking to a security conference in Munich, Pence tells his audience he brings greetings from President Trump… and not a single person claps. #awkward pic.twitter.com/JkFpsKqfgk
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 16, 2019
It was deeply, horrifically uncomfortable and unfortunately for Pence, it was not the first time last week that he was subjected to such a response.
That’s because a couple of days before the Munich conference, Pence was speaking at an event about Middle East peace and security which was viewed by many as a thinly-veiled attempt to box Iran out of the conversation.
This view was given further credence by the words that came out of Pence’s mouth while at the lectern.
“The time has come for our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, and join with us as we bring the economic and diplomatic pressure necessary to give the Iranian people, the region, and the world the peace, security, and freedom they deserve,” he said, once again standing there looking out at the crowd waiting for something, anything.
Once again, he was given nothing and simply stood there looking like a thumb, before briefly shaking his head and moving on.
This is just brutal pic.twitter.com/NzLgWuLcwP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 16, 2019
Still, Pence can have no complaints about how things worked out. God has created this universe and determines all that happens within it, so if no one wants to applaud Pence’s hateful and ill-informed rhetoric, that’s merely God’s will.
