Mike Pence Once Argued Clinton Should Be Impeached For Lying About Infidelity, Now Silent On Trump’s Affairs

Earlier this week, a series of old articles written by Vice President Mike Pence was unearthed, revealing that he had once pushed for the impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton. These articles stressed that Clinton’s admission of an extramarital affair with a White House intern should merit his removal from office. In response to these revelations, a separate, more recent report accused Pence of having double standards, suggesting that the vice president is turning a blind eye to the acts of adultery President Donald Trump has often been accused of committing.

On Monday, CNN revealed that Pence, who was a radio host and conservative activist in his home state of Indiana in the late 1990s, wrote two columns that accused Clinton of no longer having the moral integrity to lead the United States. While the websites Pence posted the columns on are long defunct, CNN used the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine online search to pull old archived copies of the articles, which ran in multiple Indiana newspapers around the time they were first published.

“If you and I fall into bad moral habits, we can harm our families, our employers, and our friends,” read one of Mike Pence’s columns, which suggested it was a “ludicrous and dangerous” idea for Clinton’s morals to be judged as if he was an ordinary person.

“Throughout our history, we have seen the presidency as the repository of all of our highest hopes and ideals and values. To demand less is to do an injustice to the blood that bought our freedoms.”

As further noted by CNN, both columns focused on how Bill Clinton was already in office when he had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and how he had “very likely” committed perjury when he said in a deposition that he did not have a “sexual relationship” with her. He also referenced stories and verses from the Bible as he argued that Clinton deserved to be impeached because of his past denials and ultimate admission of the affair.

“If our leaders flinch at this responsibility, they would do well to heed the Proverb ‘if a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.’ Our leaders must either act to restore the luster and dignity of the institution of the Presidency or we can be certain that this is only the beginning of an even more difficult time for our land. For the nation to move on, the President must move out.”

CNN unearthed two newspaper columns that Vice President Mike Pence wrote in the late 1990s, when he argued that President Bill Clinton had lost his moral authority to lead the country because of his affair with Monica Lewinsky https://t.co/eQJKTZmThx

— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) August 7, 2018

In an op-ed published Tuesday on LGBTQ Nation, John Gallagher called Mike Pence a hypocrite whose past columns are “hard to top,” noting that the vice president has showered praise on Donald Trump with “bootlicking alacrity,” despite Trump’s reputation as a “serial philanderer and rampant liar.” He further accused Pence of singling Clinton out and calling for his impeachment because of his affiliation with the Democratic Party, adding later on in the piece that Pence is no different from other conservative Christian Republicans who have focused on gaining political power instead of adhering to the Bible’s teachings.

“Nothing Trump does can’t be excused, from his relationship with Stormy Daniels to his praise for white supremacists. All that matters to them is the Supreme Court. It would be fun to see how they explain their flexible morality when they get to the pearly gates,” wrote Gallagher.

According to CNN, Mike Pence has mostly remained silent on the allegations that Donald Trump had extramarital affairs with adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and the related claims that his then-personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, had paid the women “hush money” to keep quiet about the supposed affairs. Pence did, however, refer to Daniels’ allegations as “baseless” in a previous statement on the matter.