This is going to be one of my favorite spectacles of the upcoming four months – every reasonable Republican who throws their lot in with Trump for the sake of expediency will get asked to defend the insane/stupid things that Trump says/believes every time they go on TV. One of the most common things they will get to defend is the absolutely moronic idea that Mexico is going to pay for a wall that will exist entirely in United States territory.

It is one thing for Rick Perry to have to answer this question. After all, he’s just a surrogate, so he can immediately give a nervous laugh and say, “Ha ha, of course they’re not, no one really believes the wall will even exist.” Mike Pence doesn’t have that luxury, as an official member of the ticket. So now Mike Pence, formerly intelligent person, gets to say with a straight face that this lunacy will actually occur.

Pence also said he “absolutely” supported building a wall on the southern border and that “absolutely” Mexico would pay for it. He was also asked to defend his vote for the war in Iraq, a conflict that Trump has repeatedly said he opposed from the beginning and has cited to question presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy judgment.

Welcome to your new life, Mike Pence. Next be prepared to explain how renegotiating trade deals with China will somehow fix our national deficit, and be prepared to show your work.