Critics pounce after Mike Pence says 'no room' for Putin apologists in GOP

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday came out with a stirring defense of the late Russian dissident Alexey Navalny, but many critics suggested he was overlooking a particularly large elephant in the room.

Writing on Twitter, Pence wrote that, "There is no room in the Republican Party for apologists for Putin" before adding "RIP Alexey Navalny."

While many of Pence's followers didn't disagree with the sentiment he was expressing, they did note that he failed to call out his one-time boss, former President Donald Trump, who has regularly gushed over Putin and has even suggested that he wouldn't come to the defense of NATO allies if Putin attacked them.

"HAVE YOU LISTENED TO TRUMP?" asked an incredulous Pradheep Shanker, a regular contributor to the conservative National Review.

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Former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) similarly suggested that Pence's post would benefit from taking a shot at Trump.

"When Navalny went back to Russia he said, 'There must be those in Russia who don't lie to them, after all,'" she argued. "Today would be a good day for Mike Pence to do the same and say Donald Trump is an apologist for Putin. He’s never called him out. He’d give Ukraine to him. Please lead."

"Seems like there’s plenty of room," commented pollster Sarah Longwell. "Room made by the president you served."

And Bloomberg columnist Robert George had a sarcastic interpretation of Pence's statement that he believed made it more in tune with reality.

"'No room,' in the sense there are now so many Putin apologists in the GOP, it’s nearly impossible to accommodate more?" he cracked.

Russian media sources announced on Friday that Navalny had died in his prison cell. Although no cause of death has officially been determined, the Russian government under Vladimir Putin has a long history of targeting dissidents for assassination.