Even Mike Pence Is Keeping His Distance From Donald Trump

This Sunday on Meet the Press, Mike Pence was asked various questions about Donald Trump’s platform and potential campaign issues, including decisions the Republican nominee had made in selecting people who have records of sexual harassment and domestic violence such as Roger Ailes and Stephen Bannon.

As a matter of fact, Mike Pence had to be asked more than a few times by Chuck Todd to answer multiple questions. And he did what all politicians seem to do: deflect the interview to other topics.

To begin with, Mike Pence had to be asked several times by Chuck Todd about Donald Trump’s plan for immigration.

Over the last several weeks, the press has focused on Donald Trump’s immigration policy, which was initially harsh and included a plan of mass deportation and the building of a wall he claims he will force Mexico to pay for. Lately however, at least to the press it looked as if Donald Trump was going to soften his stance.

Mike Pence was not providing answers to the questions the Meet the Press host was asking about what he was going to do with those who were here illegally but had committed no crimes.

After Donald Trump’s immigration speech last Wednesday, many felt that it was a definite hardening of his immigration policies and though it wasn’t clear; Mike Pence’s responses appeared to hint that there would be no exceptions and all would be deported.

At another point during the interview, Mike Pence was even asked about whether he agreed with Donald Trump’s decision to have people with troubling allegations against them run the campaign.

Mike Pence has a way of describing himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order,” and has also said to not even drink at a party in front of his wife.

With such timid and/or robust principles such as Mike Pence, one would assume that he would reject having anything to do with Donald Trump’s campaign, and before he was selected as the running mate, he did.

“I trust Donald Trump’s judgment to assemble around this team a group that’s going to help us move forward and be successful and win. And come on, I mean Steve Bannon has denied all of those allegations.”

Stephen Bannon’s denial of the allegations isn’t enough to let him off the hook. Mike Pence should be reminded that Hillary Clinton has denied allegations against her too, but she still gets hit from Republicans.

@KellyannePolls Is Useless In @realDonaldTrump's Cult Of Misogynists, Sexual Harassers & Women Beaters https://t.co/FKF8x7qsYg @theinquisitr

— Jon Mark (@JonMarkWrites) August 27, 2016

Chuck Todd came at him with the fact that the allegations are in court records, which are harder to dispute, but the question Chuck Todd wanted him to answer was whether he might have moral issues with the campaign.

“I trust Donald Trump to assemble a team around him in this campaign, as he has and will continue to. You’ll continue to see people added to this campaign. What’s really remarkable for me, having joined this campaign just six weeks ago, is the fact that this campaign has always been propelled by a movement of the American people. I mean where in Hillary Clinton, there’s a thousand employees and experts and pollsters. And frankly, there were people in the Republican primary who had significant apparatus, as well.”

In yet another part of Chuck Todd’s interview with Mike Pence, he asked him about when Donald Trump was going to release his tax returns, to which he said he would do so after the audit. However, he followed that up by saying that he would be releasing them himself in the coming weeks.

Following this, when Chuck Todd went back to his panel of pundits, Chris Cizzilla seemed to hit the nail on the head with what Mike Pence was trying to do with his tax returns.

“Well, he’s not going to answer the operative question, which is the one you asked him multiple times, what’s he going to do with the undocumented workers. Look, I think what Pence signed onto, he knew what he was getting into, right? There was no question of like, ‘I wonder what it would be like to run with Donald Trump.’ You knew what you were getting.

“And I think what he has made peace with, what he probably made peace with when he took this is, ‘I’m going to go as far as I comfortably can as a much more mainline politician than Donald Trump in defending Donald Trump. What I’m not going to do,’ you heard it on taxes, as well. What I’m not going to do is put my own personal credibility on the line. I’m going to say, ‘Donald Trump has been — I think Donald Trump has been consistent, these are Donald Trump’s views. He did the same thing on the Roger Ailes question. He didn’t want to own it. He’s not going to own it. And he’s also not going to say anything about the undocumented workers. The truth of the matter is I don’t know that Trump knows what he wants to do with them. So I’m not sure, even if you ask Trump candidly, he’d be able to give you an answer.”

With Donald Trump remaining at a steady eight points behind Hillary Clinton in the polls and with the various mounting controversies against Donald Trump, many have said that it’s too late for him. After his harsh immigration speech, both Mike Pence and Donald Trump are said to have lost the White House.

If Mike Pence is keeping his distance from Trump, it’s unclear what his political future might look like.

[Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP Images]