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US Vice President Pence willing to take lie detector test over anonymous NYT op-ed: Reports

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Sep 10, 2018, 05:03 PM IST
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File Photo of US Vice President Mike Pence Photograph:(AFP)

United States' vice president Mike Pence on Sunday said that he would be willing to take "a lie detector test" to prove that he did not write the controversial unsigned op-ed published in the New York Times, reports said. 

On Thursday, a spokesperson for Pence had denied that Trump's VP was involved in authoring the scathing unsigned column. 

"The Vice President puts his name on his Op-Eds. The @nytimes should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless op-ed," his spokesman Jarrod Agen wrote on Twitter. 

"Our office is above such amateur acts."

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Pence came under fire after many users online started pointing fingers towards him for being the possible author after the kind of language used in the article which stemmed from the use of the obscure word 'lodestar' in the column. Pence is said to have used that term in several speeches in the past.

Speaking on US TV, Pence since said that it would be up to President Donald Trump if he a lie detector test is to be conducted. He also said that he would take part in any kind of administration following the publishing of the NYT article. 

Pence echoed his thoughts over the weekend as President Trump suggested an anonymous op-ed which detailed 'resistance' against the Trump administration amounted to a "national security issue."

"To have an individual who took that oath--literally say that they work every day to frustrate the president advancing the agenda he was elected to advance, is undemocratic. That person should do the honourable thing, step forward and resign," Pence said," Reuters quoted Pence as saying during an interview with Fox that was taped at his official residence on Saturday and aired on Sunday (September 9).

Mike Pence on Sunday also denied engaging in any talks over evoking the 25th Amendment, which allows for removal of the president if he or she was deemed unfit to carry out the duties of the president's office.

Senior aides to Donald Trump scrambled on Thursday to disown a New York Times column written by an unnamed administration official that slammed the leadership style of the US president as "impetuous, petty and ineffective."

The anonymous writer of the column claimed to be part of a "resistance" movement within the Trump administration that was working quietly behind the scenes to thwart the president's most dangerous impulses.

Trump, meanwhile, has denounced the Times opinion piece as “gutless” and its publication as a “disgrace” bordering on treason.

Trump has said the justice department should investigate and unmask the anonymous author. He cited national security concerns as grounds for what would amount to an extraordinary criminal probe should Attorney General Jeff Sessions decide to pursue it.