misleading vice president pence about the contacts with the russians. >> mike flynn is a fine person, and i asked for his resignation. he respectfully gave it. he is a man who -- there was a certain amount of information given to vice president pence, who is with us today, and i was not happy with the way that information was given. >> reporter: when pressed, sanders tried to put some separation between flynn's lies and whether the president colluded with the russians. >> maybe he did do those things, but it doesn't have anything to do with the president directly. >> reporter: sanders also defended the president's recent attacks on his former personal attorney, michael cohen t as a rat for turning against mr. trump. >> we know michael cohen to be a liar on a number of fronts and the president's opinion is extremely clear on that front. >> reporter: the press secretary later insisted the term "rat" was more than fair. >> using terms like rat and things like that to talk about people who are cooperating witnesses with the fbi, does