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"Today's article in The New York Times is disgraceful and offensive to me, my family, and our entire team," Pence's statement read.

The statement went on to say the suggestion that Pence was not working solely for Trump's agenda and re-election was "laughable and absurd."

The vice president's decision to rebut the story Sunday through an official written statement rather than verbally or through a spokesperson was a rare move from a high-ranking administration official.

The Times' report noted Pence's aggressive political schedule and fund-raising operation and said multiple advisers told donors that Pence would run for president if Trump did not.

Trump has said repeatedly that he intends to be a two-term president and has held several campaign events in advance of the 2020 election.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway also pushed back on the Times' report in an appearance on ABC's "This Week."

"I want to make a remark about Vice President Pence," Conway said. "I've worked with him for 10 years as his pollster, as a senior adviser, and certainly work with him daily in the White House. It is absolutely true that the vice president is getting ready for 2020 -- for reelection as vice president."

"His approval rating among Republicans and conservatives and Trump voters is down slightly," Conway said. "It needs to go up."

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Mike Pence pushes back on report he's planning for ...

In one June meeting, an aide to the vice president, Marty Obst, said Mr. Pences team wanted to be prepared to run in case there was an opening in 2020, according to a Republican briefed on the meeting. Nick Ayers, the vice presidents new chief of staff, has signaled to major Republican donors that Mr. Pence wants to be ready, the article reported.

The article quoted Mr. Obst denying that he and Mr. Ayers had made any private insinuations. He also called suggestions that the vice president was positioning himself for 2020 beyond ridiculous.

Mr. Pence has set up a political fund-raising organization, Great America Committee, and has hosted key figures at the vice presidents mansion, like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and representatives of Charles G. and David H. Koch, the billionaire conservative financiers. Last month, the vice president hosted Kelly and Joe Craft, coal barons from Kentucky.

A top White House official said Sunday that there would be no reason for the vice president to prepare his own White House bid because Mr. Trump planned to run. The president says privately and publicly often, George, that hell be there for seven and a half more years. So he plans on being a two-term president, Kellyanne Conway, the presidents counselor, told George Stephanopoulos on This Week on ABC. It is absolutely true that the vice president is getting ready for 2020, for re-election as vice president.

Mr. Stephanopoulos asked if there was any concern that Mr. Pence was running a shadow campaign. Zero concern, Ms. Conway said. That is complete fiction. That is complete fabrication. And I know that his advisers who had comments attributed to them have pushed back strongly, as has the vice president. And as am I right now unequivocally.

She added: Vice President Pence is a very loyal, very dutiful, but also incredibly effective vice president, and active vice president, with this president.

Other Republicans who have been making trips to key states or otherwise introducing themselves to donors that have raised speculation about their plans include Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ben Sasse of Nebraska. Nikki R. Haley, the ambassador to the United Nations, put her longtime pollster on the payroll and has become better acquainted with New York financiers.

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Mike Pence Rejects Report That He Is Positioning for 2020 - New York Times

Aaron Carter attends Fashion Tails - Adopt A New Attitude at Lombardi House on October 6, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)Rodin EckenrothGetty Images

Happy Sunday! Here are the weekend's top stories:

Fox News co-host Eric Bolling was suspended from the network Saturday following a report in the Huffington Post that he had sent a lewd photo to at least three of his female colleagues. Bolling's attorney told the Associated Press the allegations are uncorroborated.

The vice president issued a strong denial of a report in the New York Times that he was quietly laying the groundwork for a possible presidential run in 2020, even though President Donald Trump has not given any indication he won't seek a second term. Pence called the report "laughable and absurd."

Pop singer Aaron Carter wrote on Twitter that he is attracted to both males and females, something he discovered about himself at the age of 13. "This doesn't bring me shame, just a weight and burden I have held onto for a long time that I would like lifted off me," Carter wrote in the emotional post.

Also:

A document from a Google engineer arguing that women are less effective programmers than men has gone viral within the company.

Just 10 states will get a good view of the solar eclipse on Aug. 21.

A heat wave named Lucifer has killed at least two people in Europe .

President Donald Trump surprised some wedding guests while vacationing at his golf club in Bedminster Township, New Jersey.

More here:
The Weekend Brief: Mike Pence Denies 2020 Bid, Fox News Suspends Host, Aaron Carter Talks Sexuality - TIME

CNNs resident Donald Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany, whose pundit gig insisting the president is really playing 4D chess none of us can understand came to an abrupt end on Saturday, now has a new job reading pro-Trump propaganda online.

McEnany has secured a gig regurgitating the administrations preferred real news on Trumps official Facebook page, which appears to be part of the presidents ongoing efforts to cut the media middleman out of his messaging to supporters.

The faux news show was originally launched and hosted by Trumps daughter-in-law Lara Trump in July and continues off of other similar campaign-era efforts to mimic actual news shows. But the first broadcast featuring McEnany was uploaded on Sunday, which would seem to indicate a new phase featuring a dedicated host with some TV experience.

Its unclear whether Trumps 2020 re-election campaign or the Republican National Committee funded the program, but its production values rank somewhere between a stoned teenager using the green-screen exhibit at the Newseum and Jeff Bezos Instagram debut. Seriously, its terrible, consisting mostly of dull recitations of misleading statistics the president already tweeted about and videos of Trump holding dumb signs or slouching behind podiums.

More great economic news on Friday, McEnany, who legitimately comes across like someone taken hostage by Stephen Miller, preaches to the choir. The July jobs report added a better than expected 209,000 jobs. Overall, since the president took office, President Trump has created more than one million jobs. The unemployment rate is at a 16-year low, and consumer confidence is at a 16-year-high, all while the DOW Jones continues to break records.

(Barack Obama inherited a recession and gave Trump, who has barely passed any economic legislation, a booming economy, but whatever.)

President Trump has clearly steered the economy back in the right direction, McEnany added. Later, touting the RAISE Act, a proposal with the main intention of limiting nonwhite immigration, McEnany added, Americans deserve a raise, and President Trump is finally putting the American worker first.

Other components of the broadcast included Trump holding a sign saying Trump Digs Coal, Trump awarding the Medal of Honor to a Vietnam War veteran, and Trump standing in front of cheering crowds at rallies. Yawn.

Anthony Scaramucci, the White Houses replacement for axed communications director Sean Spicer, lasted just 10 days in that job but had reportedly plotted a grand vision on the basis that POTUS is the greatest TV star in history. Comms should produce video content that constructively operates as The President Donald J. Trump show.

Scaramuccis plan noted, Rather than traditional press conferences, POTUS should take questions from real citizens via Facebook live and/or other social media platforms.

Theres definitely something disconcerting about seeing the White House decide it can just try to cut the media out of the loop entirely. Sure, social media is powerful, and this is just another disconcerting signal Trump prefers ego-stroking propaganda to reality.

But this effort reeks of the laziest content from news publishers making frantic pivots to video with a fresh twist of Trump Steaks-quality campaign advertising. This isnt a next-gen White House comms strategy, its weariness and apathy posing as one, designed to do nothing but prod the presidents diminishing number of supporters into throwing a few more bucks his way.

For better or for worse, the social media filter bubble is real, and it looks like the White House has decided to retreat further into its own shrinking bubble. As for McEnany, I dont think shes thought out this plan long term, do you?

[Philly.com]

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CNN Pundit Who Quit on Saturday Reappears as Donald Trump's Low-Rent Facebook Propagandist - Gizmodo

The Trump administration says it has new momentum to expand international pressure on North Korea following a unanimous U.N. Security Council vote to ramp up economic sanctions as punishment for Pyongyangs recent long-range ballistic missile tests.

President Trump hailed a Security Council resolution that passed Saturday with cooperation from both Russia and China, North Koreas neighbor and main trading partner. The president tweeted that the development is the single largest economic sanctions package ever on North Korea and will have a very big financial impact.

News of the sanctions, which seek to ban North Korea from exporting coal, iron, lead and seafood worth about a third of its total income from trade, came as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived over the weekend at an annual diplomatic gathering in East Asia, where Chinese officials expressed cautious support for the development.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who held separate meetings Sunday with Mr. Tillerson and with North Koreas top diplomat, publicly urged Pyongyang to maintain calm and not violate the U.N.s decision or provoke international societys goodwill by conducting missile launching or nuclear tests.

Mr. Wangs comments appeared to signal progress in the long-elusive U.S. strategy of trying to deepen Chinese cooperation toward more aggressively implementing sanctions against North Korea. However, there were also indications that Beijing remains wary about taking a lead role in containing Pyongyang.

Who has been carrying out the U.N. Security Council resolutions concerning North Korea? It is China, said Mr. Wang in Manila on Sunday. Who bore the cost? It is also China.

Mr. Tillerson also met with his South Korean counterpart Sunday and A White House official said South Korean President Moon Jae-in had asked to speak with Mr. Trump by phone Sunday night. The White House said it would provide details of their conversation later.

The Security Council resolution, drafted by U.S. officials and carefully negotiated with the Chinese, seeks to increase pressure on Pyongyang to return to stalled international negotiations over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

U.S. and Chinese officials dont exactly see eye-to-eye on the prospect of such negotiations. The perception is that China wants negotiations to occur more rapidly than Washington, while the Trump administration, which has flirted with the alternative idea of backing all-out regime change in Pyongyang, has expressed frustration that the Chinese arent putting enough pressure on the North Koreans.

During his initial months in office, Mr. Trump voiced optimism about Chinas role, but has more recently leveled veiled criticism at Beijing, saying at one point that Chinese President Xi Jinping had tried to help on North Korea and it has not worked out.

The administration has also teased the idea of expending Washingtons own unilateral North Korea sanctions to target Chinese companies as punishment for Chinas ongoing trade with Pyongyang and overall perceived inaction on North Korea.

Some analysts go so far as to claim Beijing tacitly backs Pyongyang to antagonize Washington and maintain a strategic security edge in the region.

Mr. Tillerson said nothing publicly about North Korea following his meeting with Mr. Wang on Sunday, but did express broad optimism earlier in the day, calling the U.N. Security Council resolution a good outcome.

The council voted 15-0 on the new sanctions, which, if fully implemented, could deliver a $3 billion blow to revenues Pyongyang gets from exports to China and a handful of other trading partners. The sanctions also aim to block countries from giving any additional permits to North Korean workers, another source of money for Kim Jong-uns regime in Pyongyang.

The vote followed the regimes first successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. last month. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Saturday that Mr. Trump appreciates Chinas and Russias cooperation in securing passage of this resolution.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said the Security Council had succeeded in putting the Kim regime on notice and what happens next is up to North Korea. Even prominent critics of Mr. Trump said the vote was an important step. Former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul called the vote a genuine foreign policy achievement.

This article is based in part on wire service reports.

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Donald Trump hails UN's vote to further sanction North Korea - Washington Times