[Roger Slater]

These people doing the "right" thing are, as Julie suggested, just doing it because it so happens to coincide with their self-interest. If you didn't know McConnell before, you would have thought he was some sort of statesman based on his recent speeches, but when you learn that he had been Trump's chief enabler and beneficiary for four years, and Trump was only in a position to try to steal the election and set a band of violent thugs into Congress because of people like McConnell who refused to face up to the obvious truth of what Trump was all along, his deathbed conversion loses a bit of its righteousness.

And Pence? He had no choice. And let's not forget that he wants to run for president himself in 2024, and he would rather not compete for the nomination against his old boss. With Trump bound to turn against him in any event when they both want the nomination in 2024, there was no reason for Pence not to do the "right" thing now. This is also why I think any idea that Trump would resign long enough to receive a Pence pardon is unrealistic. Pence doesn't want Trump pardoned at all. He wants Trump to spend the next four years trying to stay out of jail, not campaigning. (All these people resigning because of high-minded principles during the last two weeks of the administration need to be asked why they didn't have any principles before. Did Trump do nothing offensive until he suddenly acted completely out of character and tried to pull a coup?).