GOP strategist Steve Schmidt drops hammer on ‘titanic fraud’ Mike Pence for lying about Russia

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt questioned Vice President Mike Pence's patriotism in a stunning segment on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Co-host Mika Brzezinski pointed out that Pence had been asked repeatedly before and after the election about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia, and the vice president's denials were always proven wrong.

"At what point is it un-American when you're asked questions and questions and questions about something obviously curious that's going on that pertains to Russian meddling, and you are willfully clueless?" Brzezinski said.

Schmidt said he doesn't understand why Pence seems to escape scrutiny in the Trump administration.

"We don't talk enough about the vice president's nonstop lying," Schmidt said.

Brzezinski said the vice president was either lying or "willfully stupid" for not following up on the Russia questions that have engulfed the Trump presidency.

"Let's say you get asked one of those questions on one of those instances, wouldn't you pick up the phone and say what's going on?" Brzezinski said. "Wouldn't you care as an American who loves this country to say is this happening?"

Schmidt agreed.

"I think that over these months the vice president's exposed himself as a titanic fraud," Schmidt said. "When it comes to consensual relationships between gay Americans, he's never tongue-tied on that. We don't hear from him on Roy Moore. We don't hear from him.

The senior adviser to Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign called out President Donald Trump, his family and campaign associates as liars.

"The truth of the matter is, and I've said this before and I'll say it again, 100 percent of the time, 100 percent of the people around this administration, when asked a question about Russia, the Russian involvement in this election, they lie about it," Schmidt said. "Not 99 percent of the time, not 99.9 percent of the time -- 100% of the time."