title:  Pence Does His Best Trump Impression; DEMANDS Apology From AP Over Email Story (DETAILS)
text: Donald Trump s number two man, Mike Pence, has largely been seen as the antithesis to Trump s erratic, bombastic, authoritarian style of governing. However, Pence is crazy in his own way. He s a theocrat who wants to usher in mandatory Evangelical Christianity and force it upon all Americans. What s really scary is that he is so quiet about it that most people don t know what kind of monster Pence really is until they do a bit of research and discover his horrifying beliefs. Well, all that may be changing, and we might have the Associated Press to thank for it.By now, everyone knows that it turns out that while he was Governor of Indiana, Pence used a private AOL email address to conduct sensitive government business   and the email was actually hacked. This is amazingly hypocritical, considering the fact that Republicans everywhere   including Trump and Pence, of course   hammered Hillary Clinton relentlessly, and even had their crowds screaming  LOCK HER UP!    all for doing the exact same thing that Pence has just been caught doing. The hypocrisy here defies description.The plot of the whole thing thickens, because it appears that the AP repeatedly asked for transcripts of Pence s secret emails that were not released to the public. As a result, in the story of Pence s email scandal, Pence s wife, Karen Pence, had her private email address published. This, of course, has Pence beside himself with rage. He is now trying to bully the AP into an apology, Trump-style.Mark Paoletta, Pence s White House counsel, sent the following directive to the AP: The publication of Mrs. Pence s active private email address to millions of your readers has subjected her to vitriolic and malicious emails and raised serious security concerns. There was absolutely no reason to publish this private email address and you should be ashamed of your reprehensible contact. Your organization should apologize to Mrs. Pence for violating her privacy, and the Associated Press should observe the basic tenets of fairness, decency and journalistic integrity and covering the Vice President, Mrs. Pence and their family in the future. Here is Pence s belligerent tweet, with the entire letter included:When we requested they take it down, they refused. The @AP owes my wife an apology. pic.twitter.com/LdMmnewnWF  Vice President Pence (@VP) March 4, 2017This is REALLY rich, considering that Trump tweeted out Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) s personal cell phone number during the campaign, all because Graham dared to criticize Trump. Pence really has no moral high ground regarding anything resembling decency, considering that he is in bed with The Donald, especially on these sorts of matters.As for the AP, they are being good, tough checks on these bullies, and have refused to remove Karen Pence s email address from the original. As a consolation, though, they did omit the address from further writings on the subject of the Pence email situation, according to spokeswoman Laura Easton, who says,  AP removed the email address from subsequent stories after learning Mrs. Pence still used the account. This is all Pence s fault, anyway, because according to the AP, the story only ran because Pence: repeatedly stonewalled media requests to view public records when he was Indiana s governor, including emails about state business distributed from a private AOL account that was hacked last year. This is really getting ridiculous, these threats to the press every time a story this incompetent, chaotic administration doesn t like drops. They are corrupt, vindictive, malicious, and likely engaged in criminal activity.Keep the pressure on, journalists. They re cracking.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images