>And , if they were going to force somebody on him, it sure wouldn't have been pence.
You don’t know that at all. Pence had at least one FBI asset in his staff. Pence was an establishment insider who was available. His temperament was unlikely to cause friction with Trump and provide no open threat. Pence would seem to be relatively useful as a minder - his prior DC experience might temper Trump’s waywardness while the efforts to unseat him continued. Pence might also have been primed to open a channel of intel to those maneuvering against POTUS, while other actors were the focus of overt leaks.
Perhaps none of this is true. But its possibility can’t be dismissed. Unless you know for certain that it ain’t so?