Typically, when a high-ranking politician writes a tell-all memoir about their time in office — particularly during a tenure that puts the person at the center of a seemingly never-ending stream of scandals — it would be making headlines the world over. In the case of Mike Pence’s new book, the eye-rollingly titled So Help Me God, the biggest story seems to be how little interest people have in actually reading it. Jimmy Kimmel went so far as to dub Pence’s promotional blitz for the book “the saddest book tour of all time.” He’s not wrong.
On Monday night, Kimmel shared a clip of Pence talking with Chuck Todd about what the host described as “those precious moments” just before the January 6th insurrection caused a rift between the vice president and his then-boss Donald Trump, who was reportedly totally cool with seeing his second in command be hanged.
Pence — who even Rudy Giuliani recently called a “loser” — shared how on the morning of January 6, 2021, Trump pointed out the window of the White House to the crowd of soon-to-be rioters who were gathering on the Ellipse and told Pence: “Those people love us.” To which Pence responded: “Those people love you.” Trump’s reply, according to Pence: “Well, that’s probably true.” The (hilariously) demoralizing nature of the story, and Pence’s robot-like emotion in retelling it, prompted Kimmel to declare that “this might be the saddest book tour of all time.”
What’s even worse, according to Kimmel, is that “for all the press he’s doing, [Pence’s book] didn’t even make The New York Times Bestseller List.” In fact, the book is so inoffensive that not even Trump has expended any energy on attempting to tear it apart. The former president has had other things on his mind, though — like his recent announcement that he’ll run for president again in 2024 and a weird obsession about the price of turkey.
You can watch the full clip above, beginning around the 5:35 mark.