Sunday Show Summary Part 2: Pence (Sorta) Denies

On Chris Wallace's "Fox News Sunday," Mike Pence was pressed on the relationship between Russia and Donald Trump's campaign. Video is available via Mediaite and a transcript is available via Foxnews.com. Pence's response, or rather the effort required to get a response, is telling.

First, Wallace asked Pence if incoming national security advisor Michael Flynn had any contact with Russia about President Obama's hacking-related sanctions. His answer was simple and succinct: "I talked to General Flynn yesterday, and the conversations that took place at that time were not in any way related to the new U.S. sanctions against Russia or the expulsion of diplomats." That's a fine answer, and more thorough answers have been presented by the transition team already. The closeness of Flynn to Russian contacts raises questions, but that closeness was apparent well in advance of the election.

And then Wallace asked Pence if the Trump campaign had any contact with Russian officials during the campaign. For some reason, that was a much harder question.

On Wallace's first ask, Pence responded by deflecting to the fact that Michael Cohen had never been to Prague, which is true and is part of the evidence against the unverified dossier released by BuzzFeed earlier this week, but is notably not a denial of any contact by the campaign.

On Wallace's second ask, Pence first hedges his bets by noting that he "joined the campaign in the summer" and, reading between the lines, can't comment on what happened before he joined. He continues, saying that "all the contact by the Trump campaign and associates was with the American people." That's obviously meant as a hyperbolic statement, because Donald Trump visited Scotland and campaigned with UK politician Nigel Farage (a man Trump would eventually endorse for UK ambassador to the United States in a bizarre defiance of historic protocol). If this engagement is encompassed by the notion that all contact was with the American people, that leaves a lot of doors open.

On Wallace's third ask, Pence stammered before finally responding, "Of course not," and then asking, "Why would there be any contacts between the campaign?" That would be a rhetorical question if not for the fact that our intelligence agencies were already asking it in September.

These were two very similar and very simple questions, but only one got a simple answer. It may be a while before we know the full extent of relations between Russia and the Trump campaign, but Pence's responses are exactly the ones a politician would give to maintain plausible deniability in the future.

#DonaldTrump #MikePence #Russia #MichaelFlynn