He is setting himself up to take over.
No, he was talking about Clinton. These quotes are from articles he wrote in the 90s.
He hasn't responded yet to questions about those articles, but if he does we can of course expect waffling and excuses, and not at all this confident certainty he had in the 90s. He'll probably say something like "it was 25 years ago" and so it doesn't apply or something.
It is probably possible to make anyone look like a hypocrite by juxtaposing things they have said in the past or in a different context with the situation today. However, I doubt that Pence would try to take back those words today, and so we see a clear case of hypocrisy today. In fact, this applies to all of those Trump-supporting religious conservatives who pass moral judgment on the personal behavior of others.
It is worth looking at how evangelicals attempt to rationalize and justify their support for a man who violates just about every moral principle that they stand for. In Islamic sharia law, there is the concept of
taqiyya--the right to lie under duress when there is a threat to life or property and one's sincere faith is not endangered. Christians have a concept of redemption that allows them to "cleanse" past sins. In the case of Donald Trump, one hears various excuses--
Why Evangelicals Support President Trump, Despite His Immorality. I don't think that there is just one basic excuse. Sometimes it is a variant of "end justifies the means". Sometimes there are Biblical passages that can be dredged up to defend immorality. Sometimes it is just God using a sinner to create a perceived greater good. In today's case, it is Trump actively working to undermine secular principles in government.
If Trump manages to get himself removed from office, I expect evangelicals like Pence to point to his past moral behavior as God's reason for deciding it was time to replace him with a pious individual like Pence. That would have been God's plan all along, of course.
