Thursday's House hearing on the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol has shone new light on the almost Shakespearean drama that unfolded between then-President Donald Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence, before and during the attack. Trump, in his updated role as Lady Macbeth, goaded and cajoled Pence to trash the Constitution for the sake of power, to the point of putting Pence's life in danger.

The fact that Pence refused to play that role should make him a hero to true conservatives. But instead, polls continue to show that, on the political right, Trump remains the far more popular of the two, with numerous other GOP candidates continuing to support and emulate him. There may be no greater evidence of the deep and dangerous dysfunction that afflicts today's Republican Party.

It's difficult to imagine a more un-American notion than allowing one man to unilaterally reject the will of the nation's voters and install someone else as president. Yet that notion — that stunning combination of constitutional ignorance and self-serving malevolence — was Trump's obsession leading up to Jan. 6, the day Pence would have had a purely ceremonial role of presiding over Congress' certification of the election results.

Trump whipped up the crowd that day in part by insisting that Pence was duty-bound to prevent confirmation of Joe Biden's victory. When Pence refused (to his everlasting credit), Trump's mob made Pence a focal point of their rage as they stormed the Capitol.

America has long known all of that, but last week's hearing fleshed it out with chilling new details:

—Trump was told multiple times by top advisers that his plan regarding Pence was unconstitutional, and he pressed ahead anyway.

—Outside lawyer John Eastman, who hatched the plan and sold Trump on it, ultimately sought a preemptive presidential pardon — a clear indication he knew he was promoting something illegal.

—While the Trump-incited mob chanted "Hang Mike Pence," some of the insurrectionists came within 40 feet of Pence as the Secret Service hustled him to a secure location. (When Trump heard the chants, he reportedly reacted approvingly, according to earlier testimony.)

—Trump personally berated Pence as a "wimp" and what one witness called "the p-word" (slang for female genitalia) for refusing to overthrow the election. Even Trump's daughter, Ivanka, admitted in testimony that her father's tone in that conversation shocked her.

This is the man who is still polling above all other Republicans for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination — the man with whom throngs of down-ballot GOP candidates, including many in Missouri, still explicitly align themselves despite his apparent belief that a vice president's job is to thwart democracy so the president can retain power, and that refusal constitutes a death-penalty offense. Those candidates should be asked at every opportunity to defend this twisted affront to America's principles.

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