Vice presidential candidate Mike Pence was left to answer for Donald Trump’s assertion that President Obama is “the founder of ISIS” on Thursday, and the Indiana governor avoided directly addressing whether he agreed with Trump’s claim.

During an interview with Colorado television station 9News, Pence was asked if he agreed with Trump’s label for the President.

“There is no question that the failed leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the foreign stage created the vacuum in the wider Middle East in which ISIS was able to spawn and grow and bring violence to the region, to our allies, and inspire violence here in the United States,” Pence said in response.

And when asked if Trump’s comment was “factually incorrect,” Pence simply said that Trump is not concerned with being politically correct.

“Well, the one thing about Donald Trump is he doesn’t go tip-toeing around the rules, the semantic rules, of political correctness. He just speaks his mind,” he said. “Everybody in this country knows exactly what Donald Trump means, whether it be on that or other issues. He’s a plainspoken man.”

“On this issue, the point is clear: that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s policy in the wider Middle East has been a disaster,” he added.

He dodged yet again when asked if he would use the same language as Trump, saying that his running mate doesn’t “tip-toe” around the issues.

Then on Friday morning, Trump published a tweet saying that his comment about Obama founding a terrorist group was “sarcasm.”

Watch the interview via 9News: