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WASHINGTON − As Donald Trump’s No. 2, Mike Pence knew not to overshadow his boss.
When Trump wondered why he wasn’t the one delivering a get-tough-on-China speech that was generating attention, Pence reminded him they’d gone over every line together.
After Trump realized millions of people were tuning in to the COVID-19 briefings led by the vice president, he reclaimed the spotlight.
And when Trump said his schedule wouldn’t allow him to address abortion opponents at their 2017 March for Life, Pence – one of the movement’s top champions – gingerly responded, “Well, you know, they actually invited me, too.”
Now that Pence is running against Trump (and many others) for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, might he start taking more credit for his role in their administration?
There are accomplishments, such as a 2017 package of tax cuts, for which Pence can legitimately say he helped Trump close the deal, said Scott Jennings, a Republican political adviser who has worked for President George W. Bush and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell.
The problem for Pence, Jennings said, is the buck always stops with the president.
“I think it’s a difficult thing to argue,” he said, “because of the structural nature of how we view the presidency and the vice presidency.”
For Pence, whose approach to the vice presidency was rooted in his belief in “servant leadership,” it’s also not in his nature to say, `Hey, I did this thing,’” said Marc Short, a top Pence adviser who served as his chief of staff.
“But I think you’ll see a natural separation, because Mike will still championing some of those things that I think President Trump is probably less comfortable with,” he said.
Differences with Trump
That separation has already occurred on such issues as abortion, foreign policy, immigration, criminal justice and Social Security.
Pence has distanced himself from Trump’s policy of separating migrant families at the border – a practice that another former Trump administration official has said Pence was instrumental in ending.
He has called for a “step back” from the First Step Act, Trump’s criminal justice act that reduced sentences for thousands of prisoners.
He has criticized Trump for calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a genius, saying: “I know the difference between a genius and a war criminal.”
He is advocating changes to Social Security and Medicare, accusing Trump of being as negligent as he says President Joe Biden is in not addressing those expensive programs’ impact on the budget deficit.
And he has accused Trump of “retreating from the cause of the unborn,” a reference in part to Trump’s blaming Republicans’ underperformance in the 2022 midterms to many Republicans demanding no exceptions on abortion restrictions.
Pence is “proud of what they did for four years,” Short said. “But his concern is, candidly, the former president is now walking away from much of what they accomplished.”
In response, Trump campaign spokesperson Liz Harrington named a long list of Trump’s “historic” accomplishments, including tax cuts, appointing three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, renegotiating a North American trade deal and getting tough on China.
“And the best is yet to come,” Harrington said.
Unusually influential vice president?
At the start of the Trump-Pence administration, there was much speculation that Pence could be an unusually influential vice president. Trump was the first president to have had no political or military background. And he hadn’t shown much interest in the nuts and bolts of the job.
Before their inauguration, Pence – who had served a dozen years in Congress and one term as Indiana’s governor − was being referred to in the media as Trump’s “chief fixer on Capitol Hill,” the “Oarsman for The Swamp,” and “key to the first 100 days.”
“He was who lawmakers & cabinet officials knew to go to for help,” Alyssa Farah Griffin, an aide first to Pence and then Trump, tweeted last November.
Businesses, trade associations and other interests looking for help from the administration beat a path to Pence’s door. No vice president has been lobbied as heavily as Pence since lobbying disclosure rules began in 1998.
In Pence’s memoir, “So Help Me God,” he describes convincing Mexican officials that Trump was serious about imposing tariffs on Mexican products unless migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. could wait in Mexico while their cases were reviewed.
“I played my part, as usual, by delivering the message with a smile and then closing the sale,” Pence wrote.
Farah Griffin called Pence “instrumental” in ending Trump’s least popular policies, the migrant family separation program and his executive order banning travel from some Muslim-majority countries.
And she said Pence can take credit for the trade deal between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, judicial appointments and the tax cuts.
“fact: tax reform wouldn’t have passed if not for post midnight persuasion by Pence & McConnell,” she tweeted. “Trump was prob in bed watching tv.”
David McIntosh, a longtime friend of Pence’s and head of the influential conservative group the Club for Growth, said Pence led the effort on Capitol Hill for the tax cuts and rallied outside advocacy groups like his to support it.
Pence had the contacts and friendships “to make sure the legislative process was getting done,” McIntosh said.
“I think he can take a lot of credit for that.”
Eager to debate Trump
On the other hand, Pence doesn’t want accolades for the First Step Act, the 2018 law that represented a sea change in criminal justice policy that once sought the harshest punishments possible for offenders. Its goal was to chip away at spiraling incarceration costs and better prepare offenders for release by driving down rates of recidivism.
Though Pence, in his 2022 memoir, had nothing but praise for the law he noted was a bipartisan achievement and “another instance when Trump had done what other presidents had promised but never accomplished,” Pence now says it wasn’t tough enough on the worst criminals.
As the bill was being put together, McIntosh said, Pence was behind the scenes arguing that “this is a liberal agenda.”
But anytime Trump didn’t agree with his advice, Pence viewed his role as vice president to show no daylight between them.
Now, Pence says, he is eager to air his differences with Trump.
“People ask me: How do you see yourself debating Donald Trump? And I invariably answer, I’ve debated Donald Trump more times than I can remember. Just not with the cameras on,” Pence told the Wall Street Journal. “I’d relish it. I’d look forward to it. I think it’ll be great.”
Will Pence’s experience matter?
Since launching his presidential bid, Pence has pointed to his experience in the White House, Congress and as Indiana’s governor to argue he has the experience “to put this country back on track on Day One.”
“The presidency is no place for on-the-job training,” Pence said during a CNN town hall.
Jennings, however, doubts experience is going to be the determining factor among Republican primary voters.
“This is not going to be a primary decided on the finer points of tax policy or who did what on Capitol Hill,” Jennings said. “This is vibe primary. Does Mike Pence have the right vibe for the moment?”
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