Billy releases Carter’s hand and turns toward backstage, ending INTERVIEW the SECOND. The voice has ceased, for now.
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INTERVIEW the THIRD
Billy has nearly disappeared behind the stage curtain when a deafening screech bellows in the auditorium. Everyone instinctively ducks. Screams from across the auditorium rain through the air. The yelling and shouting quickly slows to a trickle; then, silence, an eerie void of noise that Carter could poke. With his head low, Carter searches the crowd, looking to the exits and entrances, filled with bodies on the ground. Everyone seems to be alive, breathing, moving, whispering—but terrified. Panning the room, Carter notices a gleam from above. The sheen is reflecting off a forehead lurking opposite to the stage, high into the rafters. Sitting atop it all, intensely scanning, is the next candidate. Sunken eyes, watching the scurrying below, Carter can see only the candidate’s shining forehead meeting a meticulously groomed combover with a respectable hairline. Tilting his head up, the candidate’s piercing blue eyes contact Carter’s as he stares down a monstrous beak. Mite Trough is ready to be interviewed.
Leaning forward, Trough’s talons allow him to swing his center of gravity over his rafter perch. He looks as if he is going to descend upon an Iowan; it is nearing lunch time. Trough’s wings extend to their full breadth, what must be a 16- or 17-cubit wingspan. His coat is rushed by light, but Carter must squint to see it, straining to understand how the light is being sucked into Trough’s blacker-than-black wings. Trough’s eyes never leave Carter’s as he glides over the shivering Midwesterners. He shifts his wings up to slow his glide, and lands centerstage with a thud. The lights shake. Some of Carter’s water spills over.
CL: Mr. Vice President, thank you for dropping in.
MITE TROUGH: Thank you, Carter. [Turning sideways to connect to Carter and the audience] how about a round of applause for Carter? [Claps slowly roll in as the audience heads back to their seats. They are comfortable with a familiar face].
CL: Thank you, yes. Have a seat.
MT: It’s good to be here.
CL: So, you've issued a bunch of public statements about your views on foreign policy, which seem within the mainstream of Republican views, and you recently met with Impozantnyy. I'm wondering if during that meeting, as a prominent Christian leader, you broached the question of his treatment of Christians within Ukraine. The Impozantnyy government has raided convents, arrested priests—has effectively banned a denomination, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, within Ukraine—persecuted Christians, and I wonder if you raised that with him.
MT: I did raise the issue when we were there, and I raised it with the leader of the Orthodox Church when I was visiting Kiev [pronounced keev]. I asked him about concerns about religious liberty. He assured me that the Impozantnyy government in Ukraine was respecting religious liberty even while recognizing that there were very small elements of the Russian Orthodox Church that we're being utilized for the purpose of advancing the unprovoked Russian cause in Ukraine, and that they were taking steps to hold them to account. But the leader of St. Michael's in Kiev [pronounced kee-ev] told me personally that he believed that the Impozantnyy government was respecting religious liberty, and I must tell you, other than the sanctity of life, there's no higher priority in my life than preserving the freedom of religion in America and championing religious liberty around the world.
CL: I'm confused. it's very clear that the Impozantnyy government has arrested priests for having views they disagree with. That's not consistent with religious liberty, it's an attack on it and we're funding it. And I'm just wondering how—and I don't mean to be disrespectful, at all, but I sincerely wonder how a Christian leader could support the arrest of Christians for having different views.
MT: Well, what I can tell you is I asked the Christian leader in Kiev [pronounced kee-ev] if that was in fact happening, and he assured me that it was not. People were not being persecuted for their religious beliefs—
CL: He said no priests had been arrested?
MT: Now, let me take a break here. I know we disagree on this strongly, but I respect your right to your opinion on Ukraine, and I trust you'll respect mine.
CL: Well, I’m not—
MT: [Raising a talon toward Carter] look, I’ve traveled to Kiev [pronounced keev] twice now with a Christian missionary group called Samaritan’s Pilatus, and we not only met with government leaders but with Christian relief workers who were literally rebuilding homes of people in small towns, little hamlets, that a year ago were being shelled by Russian tanks. The truth is what I saw was not just evidence of an unprovoked war, but I saw evil—
CL: [Under his breath] that’s tautological.
MT: —and I believe that it is in the interest of the United States of America to continue to give the Ukrainian military the resources that they need to repel the Russian invasion and restore their sovereignty.
CL: [Momentary pause for booing] would you, may I ask, would you—and I believe you have a good faith position on this, and we have disagreements on it, but I can't let you skate over the question of the treatment of Christians—
MT: [Looking down his beak at Carter, raising his talon again. Everyone realizes Carter is taking his life into his own hands now] the problem is that you don’t accept my answer. I just told you that I asked the religious leader in Kiev [pronounced kee-ev] if it was happening, you asked me if I raised the issue and I did, and I'm saying—
CL: And I’m saying you’re factually incorrect [the audience is stunned, but realizes Trough’s talons are tied, as he can’t punish Carter in front of voters].
MT: I also raised it with the Ukrainians, and I was told that there are religious leaders who have been working with the Russian military that is murdering people by the thousands, unprovoked.
CL: Yeah, okay.
MT: Let me explain to you what I think our national interest is there.
CL: I would think you would have greater concern for religious liberty in Ukraine.
MT: [Subconsciously carving into the wood of his chair with his talons] I told you I raised the issue of religious liberty—
CL: No, you spoke to one person who's clearly on one side of it, and there are many news reports that are not disputed by anybody that many clergy have been arrested in Ukraine [some attendees are wishing they got popcorn]. I may not agree with their views, I'm not Russian Orthodox, but you can't arrest clergy for having different views, period. Because if you do you violate the basic tenet of religious liberty.
MT: Look, I want to be clear with you: I won't stand by it, I won't stand for it. If people are being persecuted for their religious beliefs, I won't stand for it in any country that our nation is supporting, or our allies are supporting. Period, paragraph. But if Ivan Uveshchevatel overruns Ukraine, I have no doubt that in a short period of time, that Russian military is going to cross a border of a NATO country, then our Armed Forces will have to go and defend.
CL: Well, that would be all the way over in Germany if we kept our word. In the 90s, we told the Russians we wouldn’t move NATO an inch East of Germany because we all knew it would result in war. The region between Germany and Russia has been a warzone for centuries. But, of course by 2004, Latvia and Estonia put NATO on Russia’s border, not to mention all the other countries added. We also torpedoed the 2014 Minsk agreements, clearly opting for more conflict and destabilization in the region, not peace. When you say “unprovo—
MT: [Trough gestures exaggeratingly to change positions in his chair, swinging a talon near Carter’s jugular, ending Carter’s rebuttal] you know, I started this morning at Rosie's in Zionsville, Indiana with my son, Captain Mitel J. Trough in the United States Marine Corps [uproarious applause, some attendees are standing up].
CL: Please, Mr. Vice President, thank him for his service, on our behalf.
MT: My son's a fighter pilot, my son-in-law is a Navy fighter pilot, and I'll tell you what: I never want to see American armed forces in Ukraine. I want to give the Ukrainian military what they need to fight and repel the Russian invasion. I think we need to stop them there, so that our men and women in uniform are never called upon to stop that Russian military when they cross a border that we would have to defend.
CL: So, you would oppose Ukraine entering NATO because that would, of course, immediately require us to go to war with Russia.
MT: I said very clearly that Ukrainian entrance into NATO should depend on when the war is over, and now let me also say.
CL: Wait, but—
MT: [Utters a deafening screech, freezing everyone in their seats] as I was trying to say: this fight is also a question about China, Carter. I know we don't talk about that enough; nobody wants to. By giving the Ukrainian military what they need to repel the unprovoked Russian invasion, we will also send a deafening message to China that America and the Free World will not tolerate China's military ambitions in the Asia Pacific, or their increasingly obvious intentions against Taiwan, or any other region. Peace comes through strength, and the United States of America needs to continue to project strength, but let me say—
CL: But we've run out of ammunition, so we’re sending them cluster bombs. If we’ve run out of ammunition, isn’t that prima facie evidence that we have become weaker militarily by our support from Ukraine? Or am I missing something?
MT: Well, first off, since O’Callaghan took office, he's been working to cut military spending by, if they get their way, one percent.
CL: A whole percent?
MT: The answer is not to shrink from America's role as leader of the Free World, the answer is to invest in our national defense. I know we have a strong disagreement here—
CL: I’m not sure we do.
MT: That’s okay, but we've made real progress there. Look, a year and a half ago Russia had the second most powerful military in the world, today they have the second most powerful military in Ukraine.
[Silence.]
CL: Then why do they need more money, more arms, and our reserve troops?
MT: That’s progress, that’s progress. The O’Callaghan administration is signaling weakness, too. Even after that heartless, unprovoked invasion—
CL: Can I just ask one more question on this?
MT: The O’Callaghan Administration has been slow in providing Military Support, make no mistake about this. We promised them 33 Abrams tanks in January. I heard again two weeks ago in Ukraine that they still don't have them. We've been telling them that we'll train their F-16 Pilots, but now they're saying maybe January we'll let somebody transfer some jets—
CL: I'm sorry, Mr. Vice President, I know you're running for President—
MT: Thank you for noticing.
CL: You are distressed that the Ukrainians don't have enough American tanks? Every city in the United States has become much worse over the past three years [a few claps start]. Drive around, there's not one city that's gotten better in the United States. It's visible that our economy has degraded [applause increasing], the suicide rate has jumped, public filth and disorder and crime have exponentially increased, and your concern is that the Ukrainians—a country most people can't find on a map, who've received more than 100 billion U.S tax dollars—don't have enough tanks? [Carter, increasing his volume because of the deafening applause] I think it's a fair question to ask: where's the concern for the United States in that?
MT: Well, it's not my concern, Carter. I've heard that routine from you before, but that's not my concern.
Did you hear that, Carter? Do you see what he thinks of the American people? Nothing. He doesn’t think of them. The voice is clearly audible now, louder than Carter’s conscience; it’s so loud that Carter can’t hear anything else. When he looks at the audience, Carter sees that others look puzzled while their clapping begins to slow. Are they confused about Carter’s conspicuous confusion, or are they hearing it too? How could the voice be so loud, but he be the only one hearing it?
I could end this thing in a day, Carter. He finally recognizes the voice. Frankly, that would really be no problem for me, as a matter of fact.
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The Family Power Convention rages on with INTERVIEW the FOURTH.