Pence remains above the fray, but is he outside the inner circle?
By Robert Costa and Ashley Parker February 14 at 9:10 PM
For nearly two full weeks, nobody told Vice President Pence that he had been misled by national security adviser Michael Flynn.
After privately being assured by Flynn that he had never had any discussions about Russian sanctions with that country’s ambassador, Pence went on TV in mid-January and publicly parroted Flynn’s denial. But on Jan. 26, President Trump and a small group of senior aides learned that the Justice Department had evidence that Flynn had, in fact, discussed sanctions and misled the vice president.
Yet it would take almost a fortnight for Pence to learn the truth — and only then because of a report in The Washington Post, according to Marc Lotter, a spokesman for the vice president.
Throughout the campaign and now in office, Pence has largely managed to avoid the infighting and warring factions of the young White House by keeping his head down and soldiering loyally forward. But the incident with Flynn reveals both the benefits and risks of his approach — he has emerged largely unharmed by the scandal that led to Flynn’s resignation, but his influence within the West Wing has come increasingly into question given how little he knew about his own situation.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pence-remains-above-the-fray-but-is-he-outside-the-inner-circle/2017/02/14/f4db6aa4-f2db-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?utm_term=.b6c22e9e47c6&wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1
= new reply since forum marked as read
