Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., says Vice President Mike Pence might not have known "the full details" of why FBI Director James Comey was fired – kept out of the loop in much the same way as he was about ex-adviser Michael Flynn.
In an interview Wednesday on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," Schiff said Pence in an earlier interview with NBC did not come right out and definitively said the termination had nothing to do with the FBI investigation of Russian meddling in the election.
"I think what may be going through the vice president's head is, 'do I want to commit myself to something when I don't fully know the facts of why the director was fired?'" Schiff said.
"And to suggest, as he later did in that interview, that this – the president had in mind the safety of the American people, doing what was best for the safety of the American people, nobody believes that. "
Pressed on whether he believes Pence was lying, Schiff elaborated:
"I'm suggesting the vice president may not know the full details. That, I think, is the best explanation for the vice president's comments, that he simply doesn't know what went into the decision to fire Director Comey."
"He was apparently unwitting when Michael Flynn represented certain things to him that weren't true," Schiff added. "And he may not know whether this was the Justice Department making a recommendation on its own to the president, or the president telling the Justice Department, 'give me reasons to fire this guy.'"
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