Mike Pence: 'Why Would We' Use the 25th Amendment?

The vice president also offers to take a lie-detector test
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 9, 2018 11:45 AM CDT
Pence: I'll Take Polygraph Test 'in a Heartbeat'
Vice President Mike Pence speaks to airmen during a visit to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018.   (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Think Vice President Pence penned the anonymous New York Times op-ed that set Washington on fire this week? Well, he's willing to take a lie-detector test: "I would agree to take it in a heartbeat and would submit to any review the administration wanted to do," he says on Fox News Sunday, per Fox News. He declined to say whether other officials should take polygraph tests, saying that's President Trump's decision, but he took aim at the op-ed author: "If they are that senior administration official—they're violating an oath, not to the president, but to the Constitution." Asked by host Margaret Brennan whether anyone in the West Wing had discussed using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump, CNN reports that Pence said: "No. Never. Why would be we, Margaret?" For more on the op-ed and other flare-ups of the week:

  • Call the cops? "There can be an investigation if there is criminal activity, perhaps," says Kellyanne Conway on CNN's State of the Union about the op-ed writer, per the Hill. "Anybody who would do this, you don’t know what else they’re saying. I have literally no idea, nor do you, what else this person has divulged."

  • No problem here: "I wish that whoever had written the op-ed would have revealed their identity, but I see absolutely no national security issues," says Sen. Mark Warner on CBS's Face the Nation, per CBS News. Warner went on to say the White House is "in chaos" and the president is "becoming more and more untethered."
  • Leave the GOP? "I probably think about it every morning when I wake up, and I figure out why am I flying away from Nebraska to go to DC this week," says Sen. Ben Sasse on State of the Union, per Politico. "Are we gonna get real stuff done?" He criticized both parties for ducking substantive, long-term issues: "There's massive stuff happening in America, and these parties are really pretty content to do 24-hour news cycles screaming at each other."
  • Damage control? "The president is a great asset for us," says RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Face the Nation, per CBS News. This after she spoke Saturday at a closed-door GOP meeting alongside Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director, who reportedly said many Americans "hate" Trump. "I didn't hear him say that," says McDaniel. "I was there."
  • Time to pray: "You look at the operation of this White House and you have to say, 'Let's hope to God we don't have a crisis,'" says Bob Woodward on Sunday Morning in an interview about his new book, Fear, reports CBS News. "People who work for him are worried ... that he will sign things or give orders that threaten the national security or the financial security of the country, or of the world." Regarding Trump's claim that quotes in the book are fabricated: "He's wrong, and my reporting is meticulous and careful."
  • Collusion? "I have no idea" whether Robert Mueller's investigation will demonstrate collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, says ex-Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos on ABC's This Week, per ABC News. "All I can say is my testimony might have helped move something towards that." Asked if he tried to protect Trump when questioned by Mueller, Papadopoulos replied, "Of course," per the Hill.
(More politics stories.)

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