United States (US) Vice President Mike Pence says he would agree to take a lie detector test “in a heartbeat” to prove he isn't the author of an anti-Trump The New York Times opinion piece.
A top Pence aide has already said the vice president didn't write the anonymous piece criticising President Donald Trump's leadership. Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has said Trump would be justified in using lie detectors to ferret out the anonymous essay writer. Trump hasn't said whether he'd go that far, but Pence says he's willing.
During a taped “Fox News Sunday” interview, Pence said: “I would agree to take it in a heartbeat and would submit to any review the administration wanted to do.”
He added that he doesn't know the author's identity but repeated that the individual should resign.
He claimed that he was “100 per cent confident” that no one on his staff was involved with the anonymous column.
The US vice president told Sunday's edition of CBS' “Face the Nation” that he hasn't polled staffers about the opinion piece because “I know them. I know their character". Pence vowed that his aides are as dedicated as he is to advancing Trump's agenda.
Pence also said that he hasn't been asked for an interview by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and added that he was willing to sit down with Mueller if asked.
He insisted that he had cooperated with all requests for information from the special counsel and will continue to.