A CNN panel was none too impressed with Vice President Mike Pence's shameless flattery of President Donald Trump this week, as panelists roundly mocked him for going out of his way to stroke the president's ego.
CNN host Alisyn Camerota started off the discussion by declaring Pence the "winner" in the contest for "who can heap the most praise" on Trump in the wake of the Republican Party's legislative victory in tax reform.
She then played a clip of Pence telling Trump that his leadership had delivered a "middle class miracle" in a tax cut bill whose long-term benefits are tilted primarily toward the wealthy and corporations -- as well as to Republican lawmakers themselves.
"Look at the president's body language!" Camerota said through laughter of Trump's reaction to Pence's praise. "Even he's like, 'Take it down a notch.'"
"Or maybe he was saying, 'That's not good enough,'" joked panelist David Drucker.
Panelist A.B. Stoddard chimed in at the end to say that Pence is the absolute master of sucking up to Trump -- and to point out that this isn't even Pence's most blatant suck-up attempt.
"There's no one better at this than Mike Pence," she said. "I was just relieved he didn't use his favorite expression 'broad-shouldered leadership' again.
