Vice President-elect Mike Pence said Tuesday that Donald Trump's talk of canceling the Air Force One deal with Boeing Co. showed that the president-elect would use his office as "a bully pulpit on behalf of fiscal responsibility."
"The president-elect is demonstrating today what the American people hired as our next president: a businessman that knows how to sharpen his pencils," the Indiana governor told Jake Tapper on CNN.
"No sooner did he hear about a $4 billion contract for a couple new installments of Air Force One that he said we should cancel the contract, put a hold on it."
Trump Tuesday called for canceling the "ridiculous" order for a new Air Force One, saying that "costs are out of control, more than $4 billion."
The federal government's contract for the 747 jet was to be about $3 billion.
Pence said Trump's figure came from data "certified" by the General Accounting Office.
"Donald Trump is a man who has bought a few airplanes," he told Tapper. "He's still got a few airplanes.
"He'll be a real champion for taxpayers and fiscal responsibility — and this is the first installment."
Regarding the "bully pulpit," Pence said that the president-elect was "someone who will go straight to the American people with his priorities.
"He'll go straight to the American people with our agenda."
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