Mike Pence has not strayed very far from his old self. He is denouncing any indictment of Trump as “politically motivated,” and asserting Americans’ “right to peaceably assemble.” This is based on Instruction #4 of the Trumpian Handbook: “Don’t say anything that might offend any part of the base, for there are good people on both sides.”

And just as Trump stood up for the Nazis of Charlottesville, Pence is, by way of anticipation, standing up for people who would protest the arrest of an insurrectionist, Russian tool, and traitor.

The right wing has had plenty of time to form a selection of dodges around the Stormy Daniels affair.

1) Stormy is lying, as is everyone who takes her seriously, for Trump would never involve himself in anything so sordid, just as he has told us.

2) It could have happened, but that would have been before Trump was “saved.”

3) O.K., it happened, but it’s a free country where a rich man can do anything he wants, just as I would if I were rich.

4) Who wouldn’t pay hush money, do anything at all, to remove an impediment to the progress of the MAGA Movement?

I would prefer that prosecution of Trump in connection with the Stormy Daniels affair, the least of Trump’s crimes, be postponed after prosecution for greater crimes, sc., his  attempts to subvert the Constitution and his theft of government property. But as the cliché goes, “They got Al Capone for tax evasion.”

Of course, it may be that no amount of prosecution can be counted on to prevent Trump’s re-election. America cannot commit suicide without him.