Pence: I would take lie detector test ‘in a heartbeat’ to prove I didn’t write op-ed

Vice President Pence on Sunday said he would agree “in a heartbeat” to take a lie detector test to prove he wasn’t the author of a New York Times op-ed claiming to be part of the “resistance” against President Trump within the administration.

“I would agree to take it in a heartbeat and would submit to any review the administration wanted to do,” Pence said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Pence added that whether or not to administer lie detector tests to administration officials would “be a decision for the president.”

{mosads}“The honorable thing to do here is for this individual to recognize that they are literally violating an oath,” he said. “If they are a senior administration official, that they are violating an oath, not to the president, but to the Constitution.”

The New York Times reported last week that Trump administration officials have considered using lie detector tests to find out who wrote the op-ed. The Times described the author as “a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure.”

The anonymous official who authored the op-ed bashed the president’s “amorality” and praised the work of “unsung heroes” who push back against him and his agenda.

Some have speculated that Pence was behind the op-ed, which uses the term “lodestar,” a word the vice president has used on multiple occasions in the past.

Pence said Sunday he “wouldn’t know” if the author of the op-ed included the term in an effort to set up Pence.

“It’s all an effort to distract attention from this booming economy and from the president’s record of success,” Pence added.