MSNBC panelists ridiculed Mike Pence's body posture during the combative meeting between President Donald Trump and top Democrats Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) about a possible government shutdown at the Oval Office earlier today.
Throughout the tense meeting on Tuesday, Pence remained silent and still. After the heated exchange was broadcasted, people across America took to social media to crack jokes about what was happening in the vice president's mind.
During a segment on MSNBC's Deadline: White House, the show's host Nicolle Wallace, former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, and political analyst Elise Jordan joked about the vice president's "stillness" during the discussion.
"The stillness, it's extraordinary," Schmidt said. "They're making, you know, they're redoing all these movies from when we were kids. I'm thinking if 'Weekend at Bernie's' is redone, that is your guy."
Wallace added: "I was riveted the first time I saw this, the second time I didn't hear anything, I was staring at Pence the whole time."
The panel—joined by Washington Post White House bureau chief Philip Rucker—then praised Pelosi for calling out the president on "falsehoods."
"Pelosi is coming in there, speaking on behalf of the majority in the House. She has an actual constituency and power and is showing she is willing to confront the president, to call him out on falsehoods, to push back on him and to be an adversary that he's not had in his two years as president so far," Rucker said, sparking a discussion on the incoming House Speaker's ability to take on the president.
Later, the panel returned to cracking jokes about Pence's rigid stature, with Schmidt joking that the vice president was so still he might have not been alive.
"If you sit like that on a commercial airliner, what will happen is all the flight attendants will have a meeting up front to decide which one is going to check his pulse," Schmidt said.
Jordan added: "Mike Pence looks like he's at a strip club."
"I want whatever he's taken, that's some kind of Zen," Wallace quipped.
Pelosi and Schumer arrived at the Oval Office on Tuesday to discuss solutions to avoid a government shutdown around Christmas, however, the conversation ended without a solution being met as Trump refused to compromise on funding for the border wall he promised to supporters during his campaign.
"I am proud to shut down the government for border security... I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it," Trump said.
Watch the MSNBC segment below:
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