Pence Tries To Clean Up After Trump, Says WH Supports ‘Independent Press’

United States Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, Feb. 20, 2017. U.S. Vice President Pence is currently on a one-day visit to meet with EU and NATO o... United States Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, Feb. 20, 2017. U.S. Vice President Pence is currently on a one-day visit to meet with EU and NATO officials. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, Pool) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Vice President Mike Pence said Monday that he and President Donald Trump “strongly support a free and independent press,” amid furor over Trump’s latest attack on the media.

“Rest assured, both the President and I strongly support a free and independent press,” Pence told reporters in Brussels, Belgium, per a White House pool report.

He said that Trump will continue to “call out” the press if it plays “fast and loose with the facts.”

“The truth is that we have in President Trump someone who has a unique ability to speak directly to the American people,” Pence said. “And when the media gets it wrong, I promise you, President Trump will take his case straight to the American people to set the record straight.”

In a tweet posted Friday, Trump claimed that the “FAKE NEWS media” is not his personal nemesis but rather “the enemy of the American People.”

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) warned in an interview aired Sunday that suppressing critical coverage is “how dictators get started.”

“If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press,” he said. “Without it I’m afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time.”

Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis also broke with Trump on Sunday, saying in an interview that he does not “have any issues with the press.”

“I’ve had some rather contentious times with the press,” he told reporters. “But no, the press as far as I’m concerned are a constituency that we deal with, and I don’t have any issues with the press myself.”

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: