The notion that Vice President Mike Pence is distancing himself from President Donald Trump is “laughable” and “offensive,” according to two of Pence’s aides.
The vice president released a statement Tuesday that many interpreted as him distancing himself from the president. Trump’s oldest son, Donald Jr., released an email chain that showed he was willing to obtain information from the Russian government that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.
“The Vice President is working every day to advance the President’s agenda, which is what the American people sent us here to do,” Pence’s press secretary Marc Lotter said in a written statement. “The Vice President was not aware of the meeting. He is not focused on stories about the campaign, particularly stories before he joined the ticket.”
HuffPost called this “carefully worded,” as it made the “point of mentioning” that the June 2016 meeting between Trump Jr. and a Russian attorney happened before Pence joined the presidential ticket.
“I think it’s laughable, armchair punditry,” Lotter told The Daily Caller Wednesday. “He spent yesterday on the hill meeting with Republican senators on health care. He had some of the over to dinner last night at the VP’s residence to continue the discussion.”
“So no, he is doing what he has done throughout the administration and what he’s going to continue to do,” Lotter said. The press secretary continued on to say the statement just stated the facts and “we didn’t mean anything beyond that.”
Another Pence aide told TheDC that the vice president finds the notion that he is distancing himself from Trump “offensive.”
But this narrative hasn’t been exclusive to Tuesday’s statement.
The New York Times recently reported about Pence’s active fundraising efforts and the story stated: “Mr. Pence’s activities have fueled speculation among Republican insiders that he is laying the foundation for his own political future, independent from Mr. Trump.”
Lotter told TheDC that there is no truth to to this. “Aside from running for reelection for Vice President of the United States with President Trump in 2020, there no laying the groundwork,” the spokesman said.