Two days ago I told a friend if I become Governor I will erect a hundred foot statue on Highway 5 of Mike Pence – waving!

“He will be made of plastic – and lit up! His waving arm will invite folks to come to his drive-in, restaurant, and truck stop. Of course this will cause trouble on the right – and the left! But, I feel obligated to throw Republicans – a bone!”

I am THE PROPHETIC POLTICIAN! There can no longer be any doubt! I threw them a bone – with allot of red meat still on it! I see long convoys of trucks flying Trump flags driving up and down 5 in an eternal protest. They got to gas up – and eat! Their kids will want to see old Bugs Bunny cartoons. Life – will go on!

John Presco ‘Candidate For Governor’

“During the Friday edition of his War Room: Pandemic podcast, Bannon dubbed Pence a “stone-cold coward” for daring to challenge Trump’s false claim that he had the power to legally overturn the outcome. Bannon argued that Pence’s rebuke of Trump was a “mark of shame.”

“Pence, you’re going to carry this thing eventually to your grave, OK?” said Bannon. “Because it is a mark of shame. And you are a stone-cold coward. A stone-cold coward.”

Bannon also blasted Pence’s former Chief of Staff Marc Short for earlier this week testifying to the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“My head’s blowing up,” Bannon said. “I can’t take Pence. And I can’t take Pence and Marc Short and all these Koch guys up there ratting out Trump up on Capitol Hill right now.”

Bannon’s reference to “these Koch guys” likely refers to the wealthy Koch family, major donors to conservative candidates and causes over the past several decades who also declined to support Trump.

The attack on Pence was in response to a clip from a speech that the former vice president delivered earlier in the day during a meeting of the conservative Federalist Society in Florida.

Pence addressed a Tuesday statement from Trump that had suggested the January 6 Committee should investigate “why Mike Pence did not send back the votes” during the joint session of Congress that officially confirmed President Joe Biden‘s 2020 win.

Tensions between Trump and Pence have been high since he read the certified Electoral College results that confirmed Biden’s victory, something he was obligated to do as Senate president.

Pence told the audience on Friday that Trump was “wrong” to claim that he could have overturned the results.

“I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to ‘overturn the election,'” Pence said. “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone.”

“Frankly there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president,” he added. “Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election and Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.”

Kaye sought reactions to Pence’s speech from three of those who attended, one of whom was unequivocal in her support for his remarks.

“I was pleasantly surprised with how he handled it,” said Republican voter Christine Pratt.

“I thought he did a great job. I think it’s time to move on from the 2020 election and look forward to 2024,” she said.

Republican voter Tom Feeney said he believed Pence had made it “clear” that “he has a difference of opinion with the president and the president’s team over what the duties of the vice president required on January 6.”

Kaye asked Feeney if he was “happy” that Pence had addressed the matter.

“I think he needed to address it,” Feeney said. “This is a great audience. These are constitutional scholars here, so you’re speaking to a very educated group.”

Republican voter Keisha Russell was more emphatic in her support for the former vice president’s speech.

“I think Mike Pence did the right thing,” Russell told Kaye.

“I think Mike Pence should have done what he felt was right,” Russell added. “And it sounds like he did what he felt was right.”

Kaye then asked how Pence calling Trump “wrong” would sit with Trump.

“Probably not well,” Russell replied. “But I guess we’ll have to wait and see what he says.”

It didn’t take long for Trump to reply to Pence’s speech. The former president blasted Pence in a statement and again repeated the claim that the vice president could reject Electoral College votes and send them back to state legislatures.

Expert have widely rejected that idea and the vice president plays a largely ceremonial role in the certification of Electoral College votes.

Trump said that “the Vice President’s position is not an automatic conveyor if obvious signs of voter fraud or irregularities exist” and again criticized potential reform of the 1887 Electoral Count Act.

Proposed changes to the law would include removing the vice president as presiding officer during the certification process and clarifying that “the presiding officer does not have substantive discretion over counting votes.”

Trump has used these proposals to argue that he’s correct about Pence’s power to reject Electoral College votes on January 6, 2021.

“The reason they want it changed is because they now say they don’t want the Vice President to have the right to ensure an honest vote,” Trump’s statement said.

“In other words, I was right and everyone knows it. If there is fraud or large scale irregularities, it would have been appropriate to send those votes back to the legislatures to figure it out,” he said.