Mike Pence couldn’t come up with a good explanation for Donald Trump’s refusal to reopen the federal government so super duper Christian Pence made one up.
In a somewhat tough interview, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace grilled Pence on several subjects, including the Trump shutdown of the federal government.
Pence told Wallace “Of course” the administration is willing to negotiate further from Trump’s offer to Democrats yesterday. “The legislative process is a negotiation,” Pence added, before complaining that the Democrats refuse to negotiate until the government is re-opened.
If Pence expected the Fox News host to use that as an opening to attack Democrats, he must have been sorely disappointed. Whatever Pence expected, he seemed to be caught off guard by Wallace’s later suggestion that Republicans should just re-open the government. From the Fox transcript:
WALLACE: You could open the government tomorrow. You could open the government tomorrow.
PENCE: We can do all of that -- we can do all of that --
WALLACE: You could open the government tomorrow. The House has passed bills to open the government tomorrow, why don't you sign them and open the government and then you can negotiate about this?
PENCE: Well, because -- I mean, you know, frankly, Chris, what the American people want us to do is to work on the priorities and the American people want us to secure the border --
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: No. I mean, isn't it really that you just want to leverage and that you figure if you don't keep the government closed, that then they are going to go nowhere?
PENCE: Well, again, I was sitting there, I was sitting right next to the president when Speaker Pelosi said if we reopen the government and took 30 days to negotiate --
WALLACE: OK.
PENCE: -- that she would not give the president funding for --
WALLACE: I want to ask you one --
PENCE: -- border security or the wall. So, what we want to do is go into the legislative process.
The president has now embraced and said he is willing to sign a three-year extension, temporary relief for DACA, three year extension for people with temporary protective status. These are priorities the Democrats have had. The president has embraced them. … But the most important thing is for the American people to let their voice be heard.
FACT CHECK: The majority of Americans are against Trump on the shutdown and the border wall.
Pence’s claim that the Trump administration is following the will of the American people in keeping the government shut down is either a very un-Christian lie or a very un-Christian violation of his oath to “bear true faith and allegiance” to the U.S. and to “well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office.”
But Wallace did not call BS on Pence. Nor did Wallace note that Trump promised Mexico would pay for the wall.
Watch it below, from the January 20, 2019 Fox News Sunday.