Pence Press Secretary Lotter: Claims of 2020 Race 'Absurd'

The New York Times' report that Vice President Mike Pence is setting up a shadow campaign for the 2020 presidential race is "absurd," Pence's press secretary Marc Lotter said Monday.

"What you have got here is speculation, conjecture, masquerading as news on the front page of the never-Trump New York Times," Lotter told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "The vice president has been nothing but supportive. He is supportive of the president, and his singular focus is on making sure the president's agenda is enacted and that the president is elected in 2020."

On Sunday, the Times reported that several Republicans, including Pence, are looking ahead to 2020 and staging a "shadow campaign." The story reported Pence's political schedule and fundraising efforts, but also said unnamed advisers reported that the vice president will seek the Oval Office only if Trump does not run for re-election.

Pence responded, in a statement to the newspaper released by the White House, that the claims in the article are "disgraceful and offensive to me, my family, and our entire team," and that the "allegations in this article are categorically false."

Lotter would not comment on whether Pence and Trump had talked about the article, as "we obviously never talk about the private discussions between the president and the vice president," but he did emphasize that the two men are "on the same page."

"They speak constantly, regularly on multiple times a day," said Lotter. "There is no confusion here that the president and vice president are both equally focused on enacting the president's agenda, delivering on their promises, and making America great again."

One thing the newspaper did not highlight was the fact that Pence held a fundraising event in Washington last month for his leadership PAC, and Trump's daughter Ivanka introduced him before he spoke.

"There is no separation in this administration between the president's team and the vice president's team," said Lotter. "We are all fully engaged in making sure we are working every day to push the president's agenda."

Lotter said in upcoming weeks, Pence will be working to continue pressure on Congress to deliver on its promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, and to set the framework for tax reform.

"The vice president is also preparing that he will be, at this time next week, traveling Central and South America, where he will be rallying the world around the need to come together and confront the growing crisis that's developing in Venezuela," said Lotter.

Pence also has been traveling in Asia, talking about North Korea, a matter that must always be "at the forefront of our focus," said Lotter, and last week was traveling in eastern Europe.

However, he continued that the mainstream media would rather talk about things in "speculation, conjecture, as opposed to actually dealing with the successes of President Trump in the first six months in office."

The American people, Lotter said, are not worried about 2020, but instead are talking about jobs, the economy, protecting the United States from terrorism and defeating ISIS, and that's where Trump and Pence are "completely focused."