VIDEO - Pence Reacts to TV News: 'I Feel Like I'm in a Parallel Universe'

Vice President Mike Pence watches President Trump sign an order in March 2018. (White House Photo/Joyce N. Boghosian)

(CNSNews.com) - Vice President Mike Pence says he does not know who penned the anonymous op-ed in the New York Times -- "but I do know that they should resign and leave this administration," he told "Fox News Sunday."

Pence criticized both the allegations made by "anonymous" as well as the picture of chaos in the Trump White House portrayed in the new Bob Woodward book:

It's absolutely absurd. And I have to tell you, I'd be honest with you, Chris. Sometimes I watch a little bit of TV in the morning and then I go to the White House and I feel like I'm in a parallel universe.

I walk into a White House where there is a president behind the desk, he is in command, he is constantly driving forward on delivering on the promises that we made to the American people and then I go home at night and I see cable TV talking about all of this stuff about disarray in the White House and it's just not my experience.

I mean -- but I tell people, look at the results. You look at the passage of historic tax cuts for businesses and individuals and the way that jobs are coming back and investment is coming back. The renegotiation of trade deals. Our allies contributing more to our common defense.

All of that is happening because we have a president of almost boundless energy who comes in every day, regardless of what's happening in the Washington media culture and says what are we doing today to deliver for the American people, and I think that's why I see such enthusiasm as I travel across the country and that's why I believe the American people are going to vote reelect Republican majorities in the House and Senate this fall.

Asked if he would take a lie detector test to rule him out as the anonymous op-ed writer, Pence told host Chris Wallace, "I would agree to take it in a heartbeat and would submit to any review the administration wanted to do." Pence added that a decision on administering lie detector tests is up to the president.

Pence said the "senior" administration official who who wrote about curbing and thwarting Trump's leadership is "un-American," and he noted that both Republicans and Democrats have condemned him or her.

"The American people vote for a president. They fully expect the president to be able to surround themselves with men and women who will work with them in advancing their agenda. But to have someone who literally celebrates coming in every day to frustrate the agenda that the president and I were elected to advance, it really is an assault on our democracy and it should be universally condemned."

Some of the early "who-dunnit" speculation settled on Pence because he has used the word "lodestar" previously, and the op-ed also uses the word.

"Do you think someone purposely put that in the essay to try to set you up?" Wallace asked Pence.

"I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know," Pence responded. "And I really do believe whether it's the book, whether it's the anonymous editorial, whether it's President Obama's speech this week, it's all an effort to distract attention from this booming economy and from the president's record of success.

"And it's all very predictable. We have important midterm elections coming up. I get all of that, but I -- but the American people should know President Trump and I are going to remain absolutely determined to reelect this Republican Congress so we can continue to build on the momentum that's putting Americans back to work."

(Pence told CBS's "Face the Nation" that he's "100 percent confident that no one on the vice president's staff was involved in this anonymous editorial." He said he didn't need to ask them about it "because I know them.")

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/pence-i-feel-im-parallel-universe