Hey, Mikey! Does your Mother know?

We observed the other day that the new Trans-person Ban in the Military had Pence’s fingerprints all over it…

Pence’s fingerprints are all over that trans people ban. pic.twitter.com/rLVUlk5CL5

— Tengrain, covfefe-boy (@Tengrain) March 24, 2018

…but we didn’t have any journalistic proof.

Now we do.

…behind the scenes, a “panel of experts” has been crafting a report, also released on Friday, designed to provide pretextual justification for Trump’s ban. According to multiple sources, Vice President Mike Pence played a leading role in the creation of this report, along with Ryan Anderson, an anti-trans activist, and Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ lobbying group. Mattis actually supports open transgender service, but he was effectively overruled by Pence, and chose not to spend his limited political capital further defending trans troops. In a memo released on Friday, Mattis encouraged Trump to ban transgender people from enlisting in the military, and to discharge those service members who wish to transition. Trump has now formally adopted these suggestions.

Think Progress has more:

“A separate source independently confirmed to ThinkProgress Saturday that Pence was involved, characterizing him as forming his own ad hoc “working group,” including Anderson and Perkins, separate from the panel of experts Mattis had assembled. Though it bears Mattis’ signature, the report released Friday appears to reflect the findings of Pence’s working group and not the committee report that Mattis submitted to Trump last month. Mattis’ original document is not currently publicly available, but it was widely reported that Mattis favored an inclusive approach that resembled what had originally been proposed by Defense Secretary Ash Carter under President Obama in 2016.”

Anyway, it goes on, if you really need to have more dots connected. But essentially, anytime there is a first strike against the ‘mos and the ‘hos (and the people who love them), Mike Pence will be found. You can take that to the bank.