Pences Role in the White Houses Russia-Related Mess
The vice presidential edition of our Trump-Russia timeline.
BY STEVEN HARPER | JULY 11, 2017
... Nov. 18, 2016: Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sends Trump transition team chair (and Vice President-elect) Mike Pence a letter expressing concerns about national security adviser-designate Mike Flynn’s conflicts of interest. Specifically, Cummings worries about Flynn’s work for an entity affiliated with the government of Turkey, as well as a paid trip to Moscow in December 2015 during which Flynn was "highly critical of the United States" ...
... Also on Jan. 15, 2017: Appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation, Vice President Pence says Flynn’s call to the Russian ambassador on the same day President Obama announced new sanctions was "strictly coincidental," explaining: "They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure on Russia…. What I can confirm, having to spoken with <Flynn> about it, is that those conversations that happened to occur around the time that the United States took action to expel diplomats had nothing whatsoever to do with those sanctions." Host John Dickerson asks Pence, "Just to button up one question, did any advisor or anybody in the Trump campaign have any contact with the Russians who were trying to meddle in the election?" Pence replies, "Of course not. And I think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy."
Also on Jan. 15, 2017: On Fox News Sunday, Pence denies contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign. Responding to Chris Wallace, Pence says, "All the contact by the Trump campaign and associates were with the American people." On a third try, Wallace asks if Pence had ever asked Donald Trump if there were any contacts in the campaign between Trump or his associates and Russians, Pence answers, "Of course not" ...
March 9, 2017: Responding to questions about Mike Flynn’s lobbying activities for Turkish interests during the campaign and thereafter, Vice President Mike Pence tells Fox News’ Bret Baier twice that he’d just learned of it: "Well, let me say, hearing that story today was the first I’d heard of it. And I fully support the decision that President Trump made to ask for Gen. Flynn’s resignation." BAIER: "You’re disappointed by the story?" PENCE: "he first I heard of it, and I think it is, uh, it is an affirmation of the president’s decision to ask Gen. Flynn to resign." Asked whether Trump knew about Flynn’s activities on behalf of Turkish interests, Sean Spicer says,"I don’t believe that that was known" ...
http://billmoyers.com/story/timeline-pences-role-white-houses-russia-related-mess/