Whoever thinks a ‘President Pence’ would be embraced has another think coming

We are told that there are a number of Republicans who have grown weary of defending President Trump. Some are fantasizing about a Pence-Haley ticket.

My advice to them is to gird whatever loins they possess and persevere, because the Left’s smear machine is well oiled, and it will never stop with just Trump. It doesn’t matter how small an issue it is; the media will make it an issue.

Every odd year, the Michigan Republican Party holds a leadership conference on historic Mackinac Island, situated on the Lake Huron side of the Straits of Mackinac, where Michigan’s two peninsulas meet. The conference was held this year on the weekend of September 20, and Vice president Mike Pence was slated to speak.

Mackinac Island is a tourist haven now, but it is the site of a British fort that was founded during the American Revolution and was active through the War of 1812. The history sites are alongside a quaint downtown filled with tourist shops. The Grand Hotel is a magnificent additional draw. Visitors can bicycle or ride horses or carriages around the island, since motorized vehicles have been barred from use since 1898.

A few days before the conference, Paul Egan of the Detroit Free Press wrote a piece titled, “Vice president Mike Pence may break century-old Mackinac Island tradition,” speculating that the vice president is afraid of horses and reporting that he would get around in a Chevy Suburban on the island.

And so the stage was set for rampant media intrigue. The narrative started that the vice president was to break the rules on the treasured island of Michigan, the clean and unspoiled Pure Michigan wonder, because the namby-pamby VP couldn’t man up and take a carriage like everybody else.

Vice president Mike Pence in an 8-vehicle motorcade on Mackinac Island, which has banned motorized vehicles for more than a century. pic.twitter.com/yWGGTZ6aAs

— Detroit Free Press (@freep) September 21, 2019

Egan filed a second report on the day before the vice president’s visit, saying that the rules were bent before, including for a security vehicle when President Gerald Ford visited in 1975, and that there are exceptions to the ban “including snowmobiles, snowplows and emergency vehicles.”

By the time Egan filed his third report, social media became the story, with political pundits including Ron Fournier of Detroit claiming that the vice president has no need for his motorcade and that its presence on the island was “obscene” and totally unnecessary, calling the vehicular protection of the vice president a “sacrilege.”

Mlive, a Michigan online newspaper, made sure to get reaction from some Michigan Democrats, who called it ridiculous, unnecessary, and disrespectful and said he should have used a horse and carriage because that’s where his political views would be more comfortable. The editorial board of the Chicago Sun-Times held the same view, stating that there wasn’t much to admire about our vice president.

Meanwhile, social media jerks attacked Shepler’s Ferry, the organization that ferried the motorcade over to the island and was proud to do so. The company had to defend itself and the rules of the island from the political outrage over daring to help the vice president of the United States remain secure.

All of this was based on the false reporting that vehicles are banned on the island and, since the Secret Service won’t divulge security information, rampant speculation that vehicles for the protection of the sitting vice president must not be truly necessary.

The editorial board of the Grand Haven Tribune stated that the vice president was being disrespectful. The HuffPost featured Greta Van Susteren’s shock; The New York Times reported on Pence’s vehicles as the only ones that broke with tradition.

Not to be outdone, Newsweek featured Democrat bigot and Detroiter Rashida Tlaib, who called the use of security vehicles “disgusting.” Time magazine online reported on the criticism of the vice president from Democrats. The report from the Associated Press used the shoddy info from Paul Egan: “The Detroit Free Press says it was the first ever motorcade on the island, which has prohibited vehicles since 1898 except for snowmobiles, emergency and service vehicles.” The Hill reported on the social media “fury,” citing several Democrats who were appalled and one regular person who thought the vice president might need protection.

The New York Post, MSN, and the Daily Caller all chipped in, commanding little knowledge or information beyond Democrat social media reaction to the audacious plan to provide security for the vice president.

Report after report scowled at the vice president, sniped, and reiterated that vehicles are banned except for snowmobiles, emergency, and service vehicles. By far, the worst reporting and outright fake news mega-partisan trash was from Business Insider, which outrageously forged the controversy into proof that Trump might just lose Michigan over this.

So what in the world is this?

That’s a semi on M-185, the highway that circles the island, as shown in this video by Aaron Glenn Miller.

In the thick of the media-driven controversy and under fire, Shepler’s shared this tweet showing that the annual Detroit Chamber meeting on the island also brings with it many vehicles, including big-shot fake news media vans.

Lesser known fun fact for our Twitter friends that we thought we'd share. Exceptions always exist. Each year we proudly assist the media in bringing their vehicles to Mackinac Island for the annual @DetroitChamber Policy Conference. Our freight work is always an adventure! ⛴🙌🏽🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/MKZeyIZVwD

— Shepler's Ferry (@sheplersferry) September 23, 2019

And oops, here’s Click On Detroit admitting it gets its vans onto the island every year for the Mackinac Policy Conference.

There are exceptions to the vehicle ban. But somehow all of media couldn’t find any to defend the security of our vice president.

In fact, this is a screenshot of the Mackinac Island City Council approving around 80 vehicles in one month.

And just as all the hype died down, the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island shared this throwback photo.

Throwback Thursday to 1956 when General Motors decided ironically to have a promo shoot on Mackinac Island. Pictured is the 1956 Buick Century Convertible parked nicely in the tea garden. #tbt #historichotelsofamerica #mackinacisland #grandhotelmi pic.twitter.com/7a4Wv5KWqd

— Grand Hotel (@GrandHotelMI) October 3, 2019

The president is right: It’s all fake news, created to foment political sniping and controversy. The media consistently act as a political organization instead of giving the whole truth.

To those Republicans who are too tired or lazy to protect and defend President Trump from these enemies, a President Pence will undergo the same. Get out of politics if you can’t fight them. They aren’t interested in the truth; they aren’t interested in getting along.

This entire “controversy” was completely manufactured to headline the social media reactions of Democrats. And whenever Pence is in Michigan again, they’ll rerun all this bogus fake news again without pointing out that they themselves ferry their mass disinformation vans to the island every year or any of the other numerous vehicles on the island.

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