US Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday called rumours that he plans to run for White House in 2020 "absurd".
"The American people know that I could not be more honoured to be working side by side with a president who is making America great again," Pence said in an official White House statement.
"Whatever fake news may come our way, my entire team will continue to focus all our efforts to advance the president's agenda and see him re-elected in 2020. Any suggestion otherwise is both laughable and absurd," said the statement.
The remarks came after a New York Times report, quoting some advisers to Pence, said the former governor of Indiana has been hinting to Republican Party donors that he is ready to run in 2020 if Trump does not.
"Pence's schedule is so full of political events that Republicans joke that he is acting more like a second-term vice president hoping to clear the field than a No. 2 sworn in a little over six months ago," the Times report wrote.
"Today's article in the New York Times is disgraceful and offensive to me, my family and our entire team. The allegations in this article are categorically false and represent just the latest attempt by the media to divide this administration," Pence said in the statement.
The Times report suggested that though Trump's presidency is just six months old, luminaries in his own party have begun what amounts to a shadow campaign for 2020, citing that a number of would-be candidates including Pence are cultivating some of the party's most prominent donors, courting conservative interest groups and carefully enhancing their profiles.
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