Mike Pence seething at Michael Flynn for lying to him about Russia

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Mike Pence is not prone to winging it. A lawyer-by-training and cautious politician-by-habit, Pence was preparing for a series of interviews and wanted more information. So Pence, then the Vice President-elect, picked up his phone on Jan. 14 and called up the man who would have the suite of offices next to his in the West Wing.

Of incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Pence asked: What were people talking about when they mentioned Flynn’s conversations with Russia’s Ambassador to Washington? Did Flynn tell Sergey Kislyak that the Trump team would lift the sanctions that President Obama had just put into place, as some were reporting?

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Flynn told Pence there was nothing to these rumors. They were merely efforts to hurt the incoming President, Donald Trump, and they would die out. That satisfied Pence, who relayed that message to several news organizations on the weekend before the Trump team assumed power. Pence brushed off the questions as “bizarre rumors that have swirled around” Trump. “I can confirm those elements were not a part of that discussion,” Pence told CBS News’ Face the Nation.

Weeks later, Pence was starting to doubt that he fully understood the whole story, or that Flynn was completely forthcoming with facts. Now settling into his office on the western front of the West Wing, with Flynn a few steps away, he started asking his aides to double-check some of Flynn’s assessments. None of the answers left Pence with much confidence. Beyond his faith in God, Pence isn’t one to blindly trust.

By Thursday night, Pence knew for sure they had a problem. The Washington Post, based on interviews with nine officials, confirmed Flynn had in fact implied to the Russian Ambassador that the Trump Administration would take a kinder view of Moscow than did President Obama and economic penalties could be eased. Several officials questioned the legality of the communication, seeming to circumvent the still-in-power Obama Administration which had imposed the sanctions in response to Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections.

Flynn initially denied that he had made those overtures, both to reporters and to White House colleagues. Later, an aide said Flynn did not recall making them, seeming to soften the absolute denial. Some inside the White House were livid. The Flynn statements that they were merely exchanging Christmas greetings seemed a bit flimsy now.

For a White House so bent on discrediting the media, they were facing a problem at home. These errors haunt Administrations, and there seemed to be no consequences.

Pence was stewing silently, according to two White House officials who demanded anonymity in order to discuss the sensitive internal matter. One of those officials said Pence had ordered an informal investigation into how and why Flynn had misled the Vice President and, through him, the country. Had Pence been better informed, he could have dodged the questions or obfuscated, rather than put his credibility on the line for an aide who has dragged controversy at his side for a long while. Pence’s reputation as a straight shooter stood to be dinged, so Pence told his aides to spread far and wide that Flynn was responsible for not telling the Vice President the truth.

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