Rather than just answering the question about whether he was put on standby, Mike Pence ducked it entirely when he was interviewed by Brett Baier on Tuesday. He didn't do Trump any favors.
The Fox News host read one of Donald Trump's tweets dismissing the allegations in Mike Schmidt's new book and asked Pence whether there was any validity to his reporting.
"Michael Schmidt says in the book that you were put on alert to take control, to take office, essentially, if he went under for anesthesia. Is that true?" Baier asked.
Pence didn't answer the question directly and instead claimed Donald Trump is in excellent health and probably will live to be 150. (Okay, I made that part up.)
"But as far as being on standby?" Baier cut in.
Pence replied, "I don't recall being told to be on standby. I was informed that the President had a doctor's appointment, and --"
Baier interrupted, "I don't want to speculate on it, I just want to clear that up."
"Part of this job is to always be on standby," Pence said.
So the Vice President actually took the fifth when he said he couldn't recall being asked by the White House to be on standby if Trump went under anesthesia.
That's not a flat-out denial, which to this political observer is an admission that it happened exactly as described.