MIKE PENCE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Vice President Mike Pence’s team pushed back Wednesday [7-12-17] against the notion that he was trying to distance himself from President Donald Trump, after a statement Pence issued a day earlier on the latest developments in the Russia saga drew raised eyebrows.
Some White House aides said they were blindsided by Pence’s statement on Tuesday after Trump’s eldest son released emails about a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer. Pence’s office said in response to the news that he was ‘not focused on stories about the campaign, particularly stories about the time before he joined the ticket.’ Some White House officials said they felt the statement implied guilt on the part of the campaign.
A source close to Pence, however, rejected that interpretation…
‘The Vice President finds any suggestion that he’s distancing himself from the President to be offensive.’
But a spokesperson for the vice president did not respond to inquiries about whether Pence’s office ran the statement by counterparts in the White House before releasing it on Tuesday. A White House spokesman also did not respond.”
-Tara Palmeri, “Pence team denies he’s distancing himself from Trump over Russia,” Politico, July 12, 2017 04:54pm