Vice-President Mike Pence. Photo: Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images

Last week, President Trump asserted that several of his predecessors personally told him they wished they had built a border wall. “This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me,” he said. “And they all know it. Some of them have told me that we should have done it.” Reporters have reached out to all living former presidents and ascertained that none of them did so. This morning, NBC’s Hallie Jackson asked Vice-President Mike Pence to name the former presidents who had secretly told Trump to build the wall:

“Which former presidents told President Trump, as he said, that he should’ve built a wall? All their representatives have denied that that was the case.” @halliejackson to @VP Mike Pence pic.twitter.com/7xAH05aheE — TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 8, 2019

“I know the president has said that that was his impression from previous presidents, previous administrations,” replied Pence. “I know I’ve seen clips of previous presidents talking about the importance of border security.”

So rather than concede that Trump made up these private conversations, Pence is saying Trump saw them say it on television, and imagined they had told him this face-to-face. Is that actually better?