Former Vice President Pence said during a recent interview that President Trump accepting a luxury jet from the Qatari government is “inconsistent” with the United States’ “security” and that he should turn down the gift.
“Well, I think first we got to remember who Qatar is. We’ve got a military base there. I have members of our immediate family that have deployed to the region, but Qatar has a long history of playing both sides. They support Hamas. They supported al-Qaeda. Qatar has actually financed pro-Hamas protests on American campuses across the United States. And so the very idea that we would accept an Air Force One from Qatar, I think is inconsistent with our security, with our intelligence needs,” Pence said during his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“And my hope is the president reconsiders it,” Pence told anchor Kristen Welker, adding that if Qatar wants to give a gift to the U.S., they “ought to take that $400 million and plow it into infrastructure on their military base.”
Trump has strongly defended his decision to accept the Boeing 747-8, which is estimated to be worth $400 million, and has shot down the criticism and concerns raised by congressional lawmakers in both parties.
“I just want to say, it was a radical left story,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier. “The people here, to show you how crazy it is, they would like me to pay a billion dollars.”
The jet is being delivered to the Department of Defense to eventually replace Air Force One, which has been in service for over three decades. The plane would later be transferred to Trump presidential library.
“This goes to the United States Air Force for whoever is president, and at some point, it’ll be like Ronald Reagan. It’ll be decommissioned, because they won’t want it,” Trump told Baier.
“We need a plane for a couple of years before we get the other ones, because Boeing is very late,” the president added. “They should be able to knock them off in no time.”
Pence said that Trump should turn down the gift, pointing to the potential for “intelligence gathering,” along with “very real constitutional issues.”
“The Constitution prohibits public officials from accepting a present, in the words of the Constitution, a present from a foreign state,” Pence told Welker. “Now, they may have some basis through chain of title, through avoiding that. But, I think it’s just a bad idea. And my hope is the president will think better of it.”
