Vice President Pence gives a news conference after a meeting at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday. Pence said he has a “close working relationship” with President Trump. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

Vice President Pence said Monday that he “fully supported” Michael Flynn’s ouster last week as national security adviser, setting himself firmly against the retired Army general, who told untruths about his contacts with Russian officials.

“I was disappointed to learn that the facts that have been conveyed to me by General Flynn were inaccurate,” Pence told reporters during a visit to NATO headquarters, speaking slowly and carefully in his first public comments about a scandal that has rocked the young Trump administration.

Pence pushed for Flynn’s ouster after learning from The Washington Post that the national security adviser had been captured on tape speaking to Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak about sanctions before Donald Trump took office. The conversation happened the day the Obama administration announced measures against Russia to retaliate for what U.S. intelligence services say was the Kremlin’s efforts to influence November’s presidential election. Flynn told Pence that he had not spoken about sanctions with Kislyak, an assertion that Pence later repeated on television.

Trump and others in the White House were warned on Jan. 26 that Flynn’s public comments about the conversation were incorrect. But no one told Pence, leaving him to learn the information from The Post. The incident raised questions about Pence’s influence in the White House.

On Monday, Pence said he has a “close working relationship” with Trump.

Pence also declined to endorse Trump’s characterization last week of the media as “the enemy of the American People.”

“Rest assured, both the president and I strongly support a free and independent press,” Pence said in response to a question about whether he agreed with Trump’s harsh criticism of the media. “But you can anticipate that the president and all of us will continue to call out the media when they play fast and loose with the facts.”

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