It's Sunday

And desperation has now infected Mike Pence.

In an exclusive interview with CBN News’ Chief Political Correspondent David Brody, Vice President Mike Pence speaks on the unprecedented access granted to evangelical Christians under the Trump administration.

[...]

David Brody: “Evangelicals – boy in evangelical world, they’re sure getting some access here, you know whether it be the pro-life groups or the evangelical policy groups, all of that. But beyond that, cabinet Bible studies, praying in the Oval Office, evangelicals around the country are going, ‘wow it seems like a new day in Washington.’

What is going on, spiritually, at the White House?”

Vice President Pence: “Well I think President Trump has a heart of gratitude for evangelical Christians in this country.

  CBN

1) Trump doesn't have a heart, 2) he doesn't know the meaning of the word "gratitude" unless it applies to someone not showing him enough, and 3) he SHOULD be grateful to them. They're all he has.

'I think he’s always very humbled and grateful by the support of believers.'

Again, 1) he's not grateful, but, more emphatically, 2) of all the people in the world, surely even his base can see that the word 'humble' does not apply to Trump.

...'I have to tell you, the sweetest words the President and I ever hear, and we hear them a lot, are when people grab us by the hand and say, ‘we’re praying for you.’

LOL. Bullshitter needs to get that base back in focus.

'But, let me be clear: President Trump is a believer and so am I.'

Yeah, we got ya.

'And we understand the role of faith in the life of this nation and the American people I think can be encouraged to know that in President Donald Trump, they have a leader who embraces and respects and appreciates the role of faith and the importance of religion in the lives of our families, in communities in our nation and he always will.'

Oh, I have no doubt he embraces the role of religion - other people's - in his life. Respect and appreciation are not in his vocabulary, unless, as with gratitude, they're directed toward him.

Poor Mikey. I'm guessing he knows his goose is cooked.

On January 12, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius broke the news that Flynn had spoken the previous month with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak on the day that President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Moscow for meddling in the 2016 election. Ignatius did not report what the two had discussed. But he raised the possibility that Flynn had brought up the sanctions and tried to undercut the Obama administration.

Three days later, Vice President-elect Mike Pence went on Face the Nation and addressed whether Flynn had discussed these sanctions during his conversations with Kislyak. Host John Dickerson queried Pence explicitly about Ignatius’ column.

MIKE PENCE: [...] They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.

JOHN DICKERSON: So did they ever have a conversation about sanctions ever on those days or any other day?

MIKE PENCE: They did not have a discussion contemporaneous with US actions…But what I can confirm, having spoken to him 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.

According to Mueller’s indictment, Pence’s statement was false.

[...]

Weeks after Pence’s appearance on Face the Nation—and following news reports that Flynn and Kislyak had spoken about the sanctions—the White House maintained that Pence had gotten this wrong because Flynn had misled him. And that deception, the White House said, was the reason Trump was booting Flynn from his job.

[...]

Flynn’s interactions with Kislyak were not freelance activities and that the top echelon of the Trump transition team was fully aware of these communications. The statement of offense does not name the senior Trump aides whom Flynn communicated with about this matter. (It’s possible that Trump or Pence was part of this group.) But it does indicate that top-ranking Trump officials knew that Pence’s statement on Face the Nation was false. And yet the White House allowed it to stand.

[...]

Mueller’s statement puts Pence on the hot seat. Was he really unaware of what “senior members” of the transition team were told about Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak? After all, at that time, Pence was the head of the transition team.

[...]

Pence, as vice-president elect, made remarks that concealed a questionable Flynn interaction with Russia that was actually approved by the transition team that Pence himself was in charge of.

  Mother Jones

At the time all this was going down, I believed that it was quite possible they were keeping Pence in the dark since he was not a member of the Trump family cabal, and was not Trump's choice for VP, even though he said he was. But now, I'm not sure. Not sure at all.  Pence is a schemer, and Jared lobbied for him to be VP.

Leaving us with Paul Ryan. Unless Democrats take the House in 2018.  Maybe. I'll have to research that. If the Speaker of the House is of the opposition party when the President and Vice President are ousted, does the administration suddenly belong to the opposition?

There's always something else to research.