On Thursday afternoon, Bennie Thompson, the chair of the congressional panel probing the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, offered full-throated praise for Donald Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence for standing up to his boss that day.
“He resisted the pressure. He knew it was illegal, he knew it was wrong,” Thompson said during the panel’s third hearing. “We are fortunate for Mr Pence’s courage on January 6. Our democracy came dangerously close to catastrophe.”
For years, that would have been surprising Democratic praise for a staunchly conservative Republican. Pence, the former governor of Indiana, went on to be a loyal — even obsequious — second-in-command to Trump, tolerating the president’s erratic decision-making, tweetstorms and efforts to undermine America’s institutions of government.