Mike Pence’s inflammatory “Libya model” rhetoric in an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum caused an angry backlash from North Korea which led later to Trump’s calling off the June summit (though he seems desperate to revive it). But in an interview with Mediaite, MacCallum pretended Pence had said nothing extraordinary when he suggested that Kim Jong Un might deserve to be assassinated.

Pence Echoed Warhawk John Bolton during the MacCallum interview

During their interview last Monday, Pence and MacCallum had this exchange about North Korea and the summit (my emphases added):

MACCALLUM: So, clearly the president is still willing to walk away. 

PENCE: Well, there’s no question, but look it’s—we hope for better. We really hope that Kim Jong-un will seize the opportunity to dismantle his nuclear weapons program and do so by peaceable means. You know, there were some talk about the Libya model last week. And you know, as the president made clear, you know, this will only end like the Libya Model ended if Kim Jong-un doesn’t make a deal. 

The “Libya model” refers to a comment made by war-loving chickenhawk John Bolton. That, in turn, is a reference to Moammar Gaddafi who gave up his nuclear weapons but was later assassinated by western-backed rebel forces.  By the way, Pence, like Bolton and Trump, never served in the military.

MacCallum acknowledged the incendiary nature of the "Libya model" comment in her reply to Pence

MACCALLUM: Some people saw that as a threat. 

PENCE: Well, I think it’s more of a fact. President Trump made it clear the United States of America under his leadership is not going to tolerate the regime in North Korea possessing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that threaten the United States and our allies. We’ve made it clear that we are continuing to bring economic and diplomatic pressure to bear on North Korea that all options are on the table to achieve that end. But that being said, we’ve seen great progress in recent months. Last month’s inter-Korean summit where you saw the leaders of north and south meet at the Blue House, have that discussion. The reality is that we hope for a peaceable solution. The president remains open to a summit taking place and will continue to pursue that path even while we stand strong on the objective of denuclearization in the extreme pressure campaign that’s underway today.

As The Washington Post’s foreign affairs reporter Rick Noack commented, “If you’re serious about peace and denuclearization, maybe don’t mention Libya.” He went on to note that “Pyongyang lashed out at Vice President Pence, calling him a “political dummy” and threatening a “nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.” North Korean vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui responded, “As a person involved in the U.S. affairs, I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the U.S. vice president.” That was the precedent to Trump’s breakup letter to Kim Jong Un.

MacCallum acted as though Pence played no role in derailing the North Korea summit

In her responses to Mediaite, published today, MacCallum made the “Libya model” talk sound as though it were merely a demand for “complete denuclearization” – while conveniently playing down the part about the murder of Gaddafi (my emphases added).

MEDIAITE: The Vice President kind of gave a boilerplate, though firm, response to the first question. Did you get the sense, early on, that he was ready to go further in this interview — as he eventually did — or did you think he’d stick to the company line?

In our line of work you always want to continue to dig deeper into the first answer and I think in that process you figure out how far someone is willing or able to share. When I asked him whether he thought the summit would happen, yes – it was obvious to me that it was very much the topic of conversation at the president’s lunch with the vice president and that they had something that they wanted to impart. I think it was pretty clear as he started to discuss it more that A – total denuclearization was where this summit need to begin and B – the Libya model, which is complete denuclearization, was what they were seeking and that they felt that if that didn’t happen, the other alternatives for Kim Jong Un were not so great.

In her next response, MacCallum blamed the summit collapse all on North Korea and ignored the possibility the Trump administration made missteps:

MEDIAITE: Which of the vice president’s comments do you think most struck a nerve with the North Koreans? And overall, did you envision your interview making the kind of waves that it clearly did?

MACCALLUM: I think there were a few things. One of them was that he said that it was their invitation to sit down. That in it of itself didn’t seem that controversial to me but the North Koreans cited that specifically that they felt that wasn’t the way it went. And the president said in his letter it really didn’t matter who initiated the discussion and the invitation for the summit and that it was irrelevant. The other things were clearly the Libya model discussion and the complete denuclearization demand. I think that because of the shifting that was happening with the summit and the sending of this message and looking back at it – it was almost as if the North Koreans were looking for something to hang it on because they were clearly not ready to sit down. I mean, if you don’t show up at the meeting in Singapore to arrange the summit… that’s a pretty big signal that things aren’t necessarily going well.

So, I think the North Koreans in a way used some of the comments by the vice president as a way to demonstrate that things were at an impasse. They called him names and jumped all over what he said when really what he said wasn’t much different from what we’ve been hearing from him and President Trump. It was pretty clear that they were looking for a straw to break the camel’s back, and they found it the Vice President’s unequivocal language.

MacCallum may be correct that North Korea was looking for an excuse to scotch the talks. But it is disingenuous and dishonest of her to pretend that Pence (and Bolton) had not dropped a big one in the other side's lap.

However, it is not a surprise that MacCallum would put the role of Trump PR agent over truth teller.

Watch her interview with Pence below, from the May 21, 2018 The Story with Martha MacCallum.