I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen an election before where the vice presidential nominee spends as much time distancing himself from the guy at the top of the ticket as we’re seeing from Mike Pence this time around. We saw John McCain, on occasion, run like a scalded dog away from Sarah Palin but never vice versa.

For the second time in a week, Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, issued a statement that appeared designed to put some space between the two men. The father of a Marine, Pence said Sunday that he and Trump believe Capt. Khan is a hero and his family “should be cherished by every American.”

Last week, Pence said Russia would face “serious consequences” for meddling in U.S. elections at roughly the same time Trump appeared to encourage it, telling reporters he would welcome Russia unearthing emails that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton deleted from the private servers she used while secretary of state.

Pence’s statement late Sunday came after an afternoon of debate among his aides as to whether he should find a way to dissociate himself subtly from Trump’s comments, according to a person familiar with the internal campaign conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss them publicly.

Bill Mauldin, the WW II cartoonist, in his book Up Front, had this to say about Italy in World War II,

I feel the same way about Pence. I’d really like to feel sorry for the guy, but he could have avoided the serial self beclowning involved in being Trump’s running mate by the simple expedient of not doing it.