Pence vs. Trump? This is how Gerald Ford eventually broke with Nixon.

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The subpoena issued to Mike Pence this week by the special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s failed bid to recall the 2020 presidential election could sever ties between the former president and his once loyal vice president, if this caused Pence to testify against his former employer.

A half-century ago, Vice President Gerald Ford also faced a tipping point in his relationship with Richard M. Nixon, and decided to part ways with the wayward president.

Ford, who had faithfully defended Nixon throughout the Watergate scandal as both House minority leader and vice president, finally told Nixon on August 6, 1974, in the waning days of Nixon’s presidency, that he could no longer defend him. In his memoir, “A Time to Heal,” Ford recalled this pivotal moment, which occurred during a Cabinet meeting. Realizing that everyone in the room was looking at him, he said to Nixon, “Mr. President, with your indulgence, I have something to say.”

“Well Jerry, all right,” Nixon replied.

“Everybody recognizes the difficult position I’m in,” Ford said. “No one regrets more than I did this whole tragic episode. I have deep personal sympathy for you, Mr. President, and your good family. But I want to emphasize that if I knew what was revealed about at Watergate in the last twenty-four hours, I would not have made some of the statements that I made as Minority Leader or as Vice President.”

In its 2006 obituary for Ford, the New York Times reported that Ford told Nixon more directly, “I can no longer defend you publicly.”

Ford told the president he had just made up his mind the day before, when a secretly recorded June 23, 1972, phone call, known as the “smoking gun” tape, was released, showing Nixon had approved a plan for the CIA to block the FBI’s investigation into the Watergate break-in. On Capitol Hill, fellow Republicans who had planned to support Nixon in an impeachment trial distanced themselves from him.

But even when Ford broke with the president, he softened the blow by telling him, “You gave us the best foreign policy this country has ever had. A lot of work. And people appreciate it. I can assure you that I look forward to continuing to support the Administration’s foreign policy and the fight against inflation.”

In some ways, Pence has moved away from Trump. He told ABC News in November that Trump “threatened me and my family” on January 6, 2021, when they were trapped in the Capitol as pro-Trump protesters stormed it. Some shouted “Hang Mike Pence!” because he opposed Trump’s plan to have Pence use his position as Senate president to try to reverse Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

But Pence also gave the president an out, blaming his behavior that day on bad legal advice. “Well, I don’t know if it’s criminal to listen to bad advice from lawyers,” he said on “Meet the Press” last year, reflecting his caution not to alienate Trump loyalists with absolute rejection of the former president.

It is not yet clear whether Pence will comply with the subpoena. The Post reported that Pence has privately expressed concerns about testifying against the former president because of executive privilege. But if he does, that will likely mark a final break. Trump is already running for president in 2024; Pence is considering a run.

Like Pence, Ford was a loyal vice president to Nixon, who nominated him to the office in October 1973 after Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned over his own scandal. Before that, Ford had been Nixon’s key ally on the Hill as House minority leader. For example, in a May 1, 1973, secretly recorded call, Nixon told Ford that congressional Republicans needed to “start fighting back” after the resignation of two top Nixon aides.

“Any time you want me to do anything, any time, you call me, Mr. President,” Ford replied. “We will watch over you morning, noon and night. … You have so many friends here, both Republicans and Democrats, and don’t worry about anyone being sunshine soldiers or summer patriots.”

“Well, never Jerry Ford,” Nixon replied. “But if you can get some congressmen and senators to speak up and say a word, for Christ’s sake.”

Trump also encouraged Pence, to a degree that would have made a naked Nixon blush. As Pence recalled in his autobiography, “So Help Me God,” he told Trump in a phone call on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, that he had no power to decide which electoral votes would be counted — and that he will issue a statement to Congress confirming that.

“The president installed me,” Pence wrote. “’You will go down as a wimp,’ he said. ‘If you do that, I made a big mistake five years ago!’”

In Ford’s case, he later explained why he defended Nixon in the Watergate crowd: “I believed what I was told so my entire conduct as vice president was based on that personal trust.”

Sometimes, Nixon did not return that trust. In May 1974, Newsweek described a meeting between Nixon and former New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller (who would later serve as Ford’s vice president). “Sitting at his desk,” the magazine reported, “the President asked Rockefeller scornfully: ‘Do you see Gerald Ford sitting in this chair?’”

Ford declined to comment on the report but said he and Nixon “had a great, personal, social, political relationship and I don’t see any change despite what some have speculated. We are firm friends. I admire him.”

But by this time, Ford was beginning to emerge from Nixon’s shadow. “One of his colleagues said this week that Mr. Ford no longer regards his relationship with the President as one of master and slave,” reported the New York Times on May 29, 1974. “’He says that he is his own man, and now he is acting,’ he said.”

On another occasion, Nixon expressed affection for his vice president. Just weeks after the Newsweek story, in a letter dated June 8, 1974, Nixon wrote to Ford:

Dear Jerry, This is just a note to tell you how much I appreciate your wonderful and courageous support during the last difficult months. How easy is it for you to pander to the press and others who are desperately trying to drive a wedge between the president and the vice president. It’s hard now, but I’m sure history will record you as one of the most capable, brave and honorable vice presidents we’ve ever had.

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