The Morning Joe panel had a lot to say about Vice-President Mike Pence repeatedly denying having any knowledge of President Donald Trump’s scandals.
After being asked by a reporter in Japan to comment on the domestic violence scandal plaguing the White House this week, Pence avoided the questions, including one about whether he is just being kept out of the loop since he often claims that he didn’t know about a scandal when one comes up.
Indeed, there have been several occasions when Pence has denied knowing about a scandal, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn talking to Russian officials about sanctions during the transition even though Pence was the leader of the transition team.
Pence claimed that he only found out about months later in March 2017.
Documents reveal that Flynn told the transition team that he was going to be making calls to Russian officials, but Pence has denied having any knowledge of it. Again, Pence was the leader of the transition team. It’s difficult to fathom how he could not possibly know about this stuff.
It turns out that even senior staffers under Pence knew about the domestic violence scandal.
The panelists on MSNBCs Morning Joe had a field day with the denials.
Mike Barnicle joked that everyone should cut Pence some slack since he is probably “running his own transition team” a reference to the possible impeachment of Trump if the Russia investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller charges him with obstruction and conspiracy. If that were to occur, Pence would become the next president.
GOP strategist Susan Del Percio pointed out that the relationship between Trump and Pence is the “polar opposite of the one between former President Barack Obama and former Vice-President Joe Biden. Obama kept Biden in the loop whereas Trump apparently doesn’t respect Pence enough to keep him informed on what’s going on.
It’s either that or Pence is lying because it’s hard to believe the second-most powerful person in the White House has no clue what’s going on.
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough chimed in to say:
“It’s also problematic for the vice president that he’s arguing as a man who ran the transition team, he didn’t know what everybody else on the transition team knew regarding Gen. Flynn. …
It’s also problematic for him to say he did not know that one of the people that was closest to the president of the United States that he couldn’t get a clearance, that the FBI had warned the White House about him, that Don McGahn knew for a year, that the chief of staff knew for a year. At some point this pleading ignorance just strains credulity. I don’t know how you run the transition and don’t know what everybody else on the transition team knows, and how you’re vice president of the United States and always left in the dark.”
John Heilemann told the panel:
“There’s a simpler explanation.”
“The vice president president is just not speaking the truth about what he knows in these instances and trying to limit his downside vulnerability and exposure on some issues of controversy. The broader thing, of course, here is like almost everybody else, the one thing he has in common with General Kelly and others is…everyone who has associated themselves with Donald Trump is in a worse position reputationally than the day they met him — and that’s true of Vice President Pence.”
Here’s the video via YouTube.
Credibility is important if a politician wants to survive scandals that arise. But Pence’s repeated denials hurt his credibility. It makes people wonder if he’s lying or if he’s just simply bad at his job.
Either way, it doesn’t make him the best choice to replace Trump should he be impeached.
Featured Image: YouTube screenshot.
