In what will almost certainly come to be known as Mike Pence’s “Please clap” moment — a reference to the time that former Republican presidential candidate Jeb! Bush begged his audience for applause during a speech — the Vice President suffered a humiliating, extended period of silence as he waited for an ovation for Donald Trump that never came.
Appearing at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, a gathering of US allies, Pence was there along with a bipartisan delegation including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Senators Chris Coons and Sheldon Whitehouse, and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
Echoing Trump’s numerous criticisms of NATO, Pence himself took the organization to task over defense spending, perhaps lending credence to the New York Times report that Trump had indicated several times last year a desire to pull out of NATO entirely. He told the conference:
The United States expects every NATO member to put in place a credible plan to meet the 2 percent threshold. And, by 2024, we expect all our allies to invest 20 percent of defense spending on procurement.”
But the embarrassing moment for Pence came when he brought up President Trump during an awards ceremony honoring Senator John McCain, who attended the annual conference frequently during his lengthy career in service to the state of Arizona and to America. Pence heralded his “greetings” from the President, leaving ample time for an extended round of applause during the speech, only to be met with absolute silence.
Watch:
You could hear a pin drop in the desolate void of applause for the man that’s quickly become the least-admired president around the world in the lifetimes of anyone still on the planet.
The most troubling part is how expectantly Pence waits for the clapping that never comes — is he truly so far out of touch with reality that he thinks President “Ignore All Semblance Of Courtesy” is going to get any courtesy claps himself?
Featured image via screen capture
