Vice President Mike Pence said he did not know who authored the anonymous New York Times op-ed that has gripped Washington and wracked the White House. | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Pence denies 25th Amendment talks to oust Trump following NYT op-ed's claim

Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday denied participating in any conversation about invoking the 25th Amendment in a bid to oust President Donald Trump.

“No. Never,” Pence told Margaret Brennan of CBS News in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on "Face the Nation."


“And why would we be, Margaret?” the vice president added. “I mean, the truth of the matter is, over the last eight years, despite what we heard from President Obama on Friday, I mean, this country was struggling. I mean, it was the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression.”

Pence’s response was a rebuttal to an explosive claim made earlier this week by a senior Trump administration official, writing anonymously in an op-ed published in The New York Times.

The unknown author alleged that a “quiet resistance” within Trump’s executive branch has banded together to “frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,” as well as to “preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses.”

The writer also asserted that Trump’s Cabinet considered invoking the 25th Amendment early on in his administration because of the “instability many witnessed.” The officials ultimately chose not to pursue the attempt to remove Trump from office, the author writes, as “no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis.”

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, which has never been invoked, empowers the vice president to become the "Acting President" after the vice president and a majority of Cabinet secretaries deem the president "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."

The search to identify the unnamed administration source has gripped Washington and wracked the White House since the op-ed was published Wednesday. Numerous Cabinet secretaries and high-level administration officials rushed to issue statements insisting they were not behind the piece, and Trump and his spokeswoman have forcefully condemned the Times and the secret writer.

“If you want to know who this gutless loser is, call the opinion desk of the failing NYT,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote on Twitter on Thursday, including the desk's phone number. “They are the only ones complicit in this deceitful act. We stand united together and fully support our President Donald J. Trump.”

Jarrod Agen, Pence’s spokesman, tweeted Thursday that the vice president “puts his name on his Op-Eds,” and wrote online that the Times “should be ashamed” for running the “false, illogical, and gutless op-ed.”

Pence on Saturday said he did not know who authored the op-ed but dismissed the work as “a disgrace” and “an obvious attempt to distract attention from this booming economy and President Trump's record of success."