On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” Vice President Mike Pence chief of staff Marc Short defended President Donald Trump over comments he made suggesting late Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) was in hell at last week at a rally in Michigan.

Anchor Chris Wallace asked, “How do you explain the president making a comment that hurt her so deeply — you talk about Christmas, this’ll be her first Christmas in 38 years without her husband — and why won’t he apologize?”

Short said, “Chris, I’m sorry that she’s hurting, and I’m sorry — and I certainly hope and wish her the best as she deals with the circumstances. I think that our administration respects the service of John Dingell … in uniform, we respect his service to our country in Congress, and we respect her service to our country following her husband in Congress.”

He continued, “I’m sorry that she’s in this circumstance today, but, you know, in light of where we were on Wednesday night, I think the president was saying John Dingell was not exactly a wallflower. John Dingell called the president an imbecile in his closing months. John Dingell himself, as well, had a lot of critical comments about the president, yet he took time to call Debbie Dingell, to express his personal condolences on the passing. He lowered flags to half-mast. I think at the time in the moment the president is felling in the midst of an impeachment vote that was something that came up at a rally speech,”

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