Just when you thought perhaps Mike Pence was ashamed enough of this administration to stay out of the public eye permanently, he’s resurfaced in Singapore to remind us that he’s just as complicit in crimes against American democracy as his money-grubbing officemate Donald Trump.
The nation is hosting the 2018 East Asia Summit, an annual meeting of the leaders of East Asian countries and, inexplicably, the United States for some reason. Primary contributors to the event are the usual large economy nations: China, India, Japan, South Korea — but emerging nations are also involved.
It’s almost a uniquely American thing to hear the word “Asian” and think of a very select few countries — many Americans don’t even realize people from India are “Asians” due to this mental barricade constructed for us by our well-meaning but ill-informed social studies teachers decades ago — but one of the most prominent forces in East Asia is, in fact, Russia. And so despite the fact that his nation’s capital is in Europe, Vladimir Putin was also on hand at the EAS.
That’s where Pence and Putin — along with National Security Adviser John Bolton — met on the “sidelines” on Thursday, sitting briefly next to one another to discuss what the Vice President’s Press Secretary Alyssa Farah described as “issues that will be discussed when President Trump and President Putin are both in Argentina for the [G20] summit” taking place November 30 through December 1 in the South American metropolis of Buenos Aires.
Not present at the “sideline” meeting between Pence and Putin? Any American media, or anyone who can confirm what they did, in fact, discuss.
Per the foreign press pool:
Mr. Pence took his seat and Mr. Putin arrived a few minutes later. His chair was next to Mr. Pence and as he walked past at 2:20 p.m. local time he put his hand on the vice president’s shoulder.
Mr. Putin sat down and then quickly stood up and shook hands with Mr. Pence. They chatted a bit, and then Mr. Putin spotted National Security Adviser John Bolton and shook hands with him.
The three men stood and talked for about two minutes, with a translator standing nearby. Mr. Pence didn’t appear to smile during the conversation. Messrs. Bolton and Putin did a fair amount of the talking, as Mr. Pence stood and listened.”
That actually doesn’t sound like an exchange which included any discussion of the G20 at all, but we’re sure that Ms. Farah couldn’t possibly be mistaken about the nature of the meeting.
Featured image via screen capture
