In what pro-Trump political pundits will probably characterize as the single worst thing to ever happen to a member of the U.S. executive branch in a theater, poor, put-upon Mike Pence was booed at a performance of Hamilton last night.
Yes, simply because he doesn’t see any inherent contradiction in supporting both Broadway theater and gay conversion therapy, Pence was greeted with loud booing from his fellow audience members upon entering the Richard Rogers Theatre in New York City, one mile from where he and his fellow Imperial officers are planning their transition to the White House at Trump Tower:
Some in the audience reportedly cheered Pence on as well, but that’s probably just because you have to be rich as hell to afford Hamilton tickets. Anyway, the jeering reportedly continued throughout the show, rising to a deafening roar that halted the performance for a full minute after the line “When your people say they hate you…” in “You’ll Be Back (Reprise).” And at the end of the show, the cast addressed Pence directly from the stage, with Brandon Victor Dixon, who currently plays Aaron Burr, saying:
Vice President-elect, I see you walking out but I hope you will hear us. We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values, and work on behalf of all of us. We hope you enjoyed the show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds and orientations. We truly hope that you heard our message sir, because [this] represents all of us.
Predictably, Pence didn’t respond to Dixon’s heartfelt plea. But he apparently does have feelings, and the incident hurt them enough that he went crawling back to Trump Tower to complain to his boss afterwards, leading Donald Trump to fire up the pettiest weapon in his arsenal as America’s new president-elect: His Twitter account.
So, in summation, Trump is demanding a safe space for Mike Pence because he was bullied at a Broadway musical about one of the chief architects of the Electoral College. Go figure.