Pence: I don’t have to ask my staffers if they wrote op-ed

Vice President Pence said in an interview broadcast early Sunday that he is confident none of his staff members wrote an anonymous New York Times op-ed claiming some administration officials are trying to thwart parts of President Trump’s agenda.

“Let me be very clear, I’m 100 percent confident that no one on the vice president’s staff was involved in this anonymous editorial,” Pence said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“I know my people … They get up every day and are dedicated, just as much as I am, to advancing the president’s agenda and supporting everything President Trump is doing for the people of this country,” he added.

{mosads}Pence said he didn’t ask his staff members about the op-ed, citing their character and dedication.

“Honestly, I don’t have to ask them because I know them. I know their character. I know their dedication and I am absolutely confident that no one on the vice president’s staff had anything to do with this. But that being said, you know, whoever this was they should do the honorable thing and resign.”

The anonymous op-ed, as well as a new book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward that paints an administration in turmoil, roiled the White House last week.

Speculation surrounding the identity of the op-ed’s author was rampant, with some eyes turning toward Pence’s office.

Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, for example, said last Thursday that she believes the op-ed likely came from Pence’s office.

“I would say I could narrow it down to Pence’s office,” she said on a radio show.

Pence’s spokesman last Thursday denied the vice president was behind the op-ed, which described efforts among staffers in the Trump administration to push back against the president’s instincts, and said his office is “above such amateur acts.”