Watch Mike Pence avoid answering why the Carrier deal isn't crony capitalism

Mike Pence on NBC's Meet the Press

In an interview with Meet the Press host Chuck Todd Sunday morning, Vice President-elect Mike Pence evaded questions about whether President-elect Donald Trump's deal with Carrier should be considered crony capitalism. "On Carrier, why isn't this pay-to-play politics?" Todd asked. "Some people would say you gave a tax break to Carrier so that they would only send 700 jobs overseas. Sarah Palin called it crony capitalism. Why isn't it?"

Pence's initial response contrasted his own unsuccessful attempts as governor of Indiana to convince Carrier to keep production in the United States with Trump's effective negotiations. Then, as Todd pushed him to explain how the deal is not an example of "government intervening in the private sector," Pence shifted the conversation elsewhere, first to an expression of happiness about the American jobs that were saved in time for Christmas and then to complaints about negative media coverage. Watch the full exchange below. Bonnie Kristian

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.