Pence casts tie-breaking vote to confirm third embarrassingly bad Trump nominee

On Wednesday evening, for the third time since taking office, Mike Pence had to step in and cast the tie-breaking vote to save Trump’s extremist nominee.

Russell Vought, who will serve as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, drew fire for a theological essay arguing Muslims “do not know God” and “stand condemned.”

Pence has cast a record number of tie-breaking Senate votes for a vice president. And every time he has overridden a deadlock in the Senate, he has done tremendous damage.

He stepped in to save the nomination of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who had no qualifications to run the department. She has since spent her tenure dismantling legal protections to scammed college debtors, campus rape survivors, and disabled K-12 students.

And he broke another tie on the nomination of “ambassador at large for religious freedom” Sam Brownback, despite his appalling track record of attacking LGBT rights, reproductive rights, and non-Christian religions.

In addition to these three tie-breaking votes on nominations, Pence has cast six tie-breaking Senate votes on legislation — none of them good. Among these were a vote to attack Planned Parenthood, a vote to fund religious homeschooling with taxpayer money, and a vote to strip people defrauded by financial institutions of the right to sue.

Because Senate Republicans have a razor-thin majority and a penchant for trying to force through toxic policies with no input from Democrats, Pence frequently has to bail out Trump’s agenda for being too divisive for unanimous GOP consent.

Trump’s agenda wins out over any serious and independent legislative consideration. And when push comes to shove, Pence steps in to ensure it stays that way.