Second Lady Karen Pence reportedly refused to kiss her husband, Mike Pence, on election night after Donald Trump won, according to a new book about the vice president by reporter Tom LoBianco. She was still furious about Trump’s crude comments in the Access Hollywood tape — it went against everything she stood for as a conservative Christian — but her husband insisted it was too late to leave the ticket.

On election night, 2016, Karen refused to kiss Pence. “You got what you wanted, Mike,” she told him. “Leave me alone.”

If that account is accurate, then Karen Pence may understand what so many many outsiders have been wondering ever since her husband joined the ticket: Why on earth would conservative Christians defend and support a man like Trump whose entire career has been a rebuke to evangelical “values”? Or, as the New York Times‘ Peter Baker puts it, “How does a devoted evangelical Christian serve a foulmouthed, thrice-married vulgarian who boasts of grabbing women by their private parts and paid hush money to a porn star alleging an extramarital affair?”

The answer seems clear: For Mike Pence, it was political convenience. Nothing Trump did was worth leaving his side. His faith and his reputation could take the hit; he was never going to get a chance like this again, to be a heartbeat — or an impeachment — away from the highest office in the country.

There’s been a lot of writing about the “Mike Pence Rule,” which says a Christian man shouldn’t be alone with a woman who’s not his wife. It led to plenty of jokes about how tied Pence was to “Mother.” But this report makes it seem like even Karen Pence doesn’t want to be alone with her husband.

He’s stuck to Trump. He deserves it.

(Image via Shutterstock)

