Mike Pence Is as Spineless as Ever

At The Atlantic Festival on Thursday, the former Vice President cosigned the firing of late night host Jimmy Kimmel while also identifying the exact reason it is unjust: because the Trump administration forced ABC to do it.

“We ought ever to be vigilant, to ensure the right of every American to express their views without government interference or censorship,” Pence told The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta. “The first amendment though, does not protect entertainers who say crass or thoughtless things, as Jimmy Kimmel did in the wake of a national tragedy.”

Kimmel poked fun at Trump’s admittedly strange change of subject when asked about how Charlie Kirk’s death affected him, and pointed out that the right was doing an all out media blitz to convince the public that the shooter was a left wing terrorist from a radical movement with little information out.

Pence continued, getting so close to getting it right while still missing it completely.

“Private employers have every right to dismiss employees, whether they’re a television talk show host or otherwise, if they violate the standards of that company. Now I would have preferred that the chairman of the FCC had not weighed in. But I respect the right of the networks to make the decision.” Pence went on to call Kimmel “callous” and “thoughtless” for his comments.

The part Pence conveniently wedged between his very monotone outrage over Kimmel’s speech is what the issue is. This isn’t simply a disgruntled employer firing an employee for mouthing off, this is the Trump administration putting pressure on a network to fire someone for saying things they don’t like. From Mahmoud Khalil to Rumeysa Ozturk to Kimmel, conservatives are being willfully obtuse about what speech crackdowns are really about.