US Vice President Mike Pence has described a New York Times
article suggesting he is considering running for president in 2020 as “disgraceful and offensive”.

The article claims some Republicans are moving to form a shadow campaign as though President Donald Trump were not involved.

In a rare statement reacting to a newspaper article, Pence used social media to say the allegations are false and his entire team was focused on advancing Trump’s agenda and seeing him re-elected in 2020.

My statement regarding the absurd NYtimes article. pic.twitter.com/htvYSbS2dy— Vice President Pence (VP) August 6, 2017

The report in the the widely respected New York Times said Pence had not only kept a full political calendar but had also created his own independent power base, including a political fund-raising group called the “ Great American Committee.

It alleged the vice president had shrugged off warning from some high-profile Republicans that such a committee would great speculation about his intentions.

To date Pence has presented himself as a firm Trump loyalist with little distinction between his public statements and the policies of the president.

But the president is under growing pressure over legislative failures, and investigations into links between his aides and family members and Russia.