Very few thought Mike Pence to be the RINO that he is until November 2020, for example.
I doubt know about that. He was a Paul RINO lieutenant in Congress and a RINO governor. Pence’s mainline GOP stripes were well known in 2016.
That’s all true, but it was my observation that it was still very few that realized that’s what he was until he did what he did in 2020. They went (and some still go) on the principle of the good somehow outweighing the bad rather than a little leaven leavening the whole lump.