Confronted on Friday with evidence of cramped conditions in a migrant detention facility, Vice President Mike Pence said he “can’t account for that.”

During a CNN interview following his tour of a detention center in McAllen, Texas, Pence applauded Customs and Border Protection for “doing their level best in an overcrowded environment and a difficult environment,” calling out “slander against” the agency.

“I think what we saw today was a very fair representation of how families are being treated,” he told the cable outlet’s Pamela Brown.

With that, Brown showed Pence a photo of migrants sitting practically shoulder to shoulder. The image was included in a May alert from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General, which sounded the alarm on “dangerous overcrowding.”

“When you look at that, what do you see?” she asked.

“Well, I can’t account for that,” Pence replied, shifting the focus back to the McAllen facility.

“What I can account for ... is the facility that you saw today represents the level and the standard of care that we are working to bring to all those caught up in this crisis,” he said.