WASHINGTON �� Donald Trump's defenders, led by Vice President Mike Pence, were out in force Sunday after a turbulent week capped by the publication of an anonymous New York Times opinion piece savaging the president.
Pence sat for two interviews on Sunday talk shows, telling CBS that there has "never" been a discussion of invoking the 25th Amendment of the Constitution to remove Trump from office.
Excerpts from Bob Woodward's upcoming book about Trump, "Fear," cast doubt on the loyalty of Trump's closest advisers. They were followed by an op-ed in the New York Times by an unidentified senior administration official who said some of Trump's closest advisers work in secret to confound the president's "more misguided impulses."
Pence said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that he believes the denials from multiple Trump officials who've said they didn't write the New York Times piece, adding that the author "doesn't really know what happens in the White House."
The depiction of Trump's White House offered by Woodward is off-base, Pence said.
"The narrative that I've picked up, in -- in not only this book but the opinion editorials, suggests that ... things are happening in spite of the president's leadership, and nothing could be further from the truth," he said.
The vice president also said he would be willing to be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, but hasn't been asked. "I would be more than willing to continue to provide any and all support in that. And we have outside counsel that will advise me accordingly," he said.
