WASHINGTON — The paradox of Vice President Mike Pence getting in hassle for failing to put on a masks is that maybe no member of the Trump administ
WASHINGTON — The paradox of Vice President Mike Pence getting in hassle for failing to put on a masks is that maybe no member of the Trump administration is extra shrouded behind an invisible one in all his personal making.
For weeks now, he has stood day after day along side President Trump, stone-faced and unreadable, by no means displaying a touch of response to the president’s governor-bashing tantrums and bleach-injecting prescriptions, whereas providing a relaxing, measured, what-he-meant-to-say counterpoint together with fixed flattery for the boss.
In essentially the most consequential mission of his profession, Mr. Pence has tried to navigate the complexities of a mysterious illness and the vagaries of a mercurial president on the similar time, steering the response to essentially the most lethal pandemic in generations with out getting caught up within the melodrama of the second. But questions have lingered about how significantly he himself took the risk at first and what recommendation he gave the president within the days when it actually mattered.
The controversy over the mask was a rare miscue for a vice president who has stuck to the script and drawn praise both from Democrats who prefer working with him over the president and from Republicans who privately wish he were the one in the Oval Office. In the good-cop-bad-cop tandem, Mr. Pence takes the calls from the governors seeking help and even calls them unbidden to ask what else he can do.
“This has been a real defining moment for him,” said Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican and chairman of the National Governors Association who has been at odds with the president over the response to the coronavirus but like other governors has turned to Mr. Pence to work through problems. “In all honesty, I think he has risen to the occasion. I think he’s done an amazing job.”
At the same time, Mr. Pence has been an enabler, never contradicting the president’s many falsehoods and advancing some of his own about the administration’s handling of the crisis. His nonstop praise for “the president’s leadership” and “decisive action” risks sounding unctuous. And he has not been able to keep Mr. Trump fully committed to policies recommended by public health experts to curb a virus that has already killed more than 65,000 people in the United States.
“Behind the scenes, whatever he is saying, if it is different from what he is saying in front of the cameras, is not working at all,” said Kathleen Sebelius, a former secretary of health and human services under President Barack Obama. “And in front of the cameras, he is playing a role as a sidekick to a president who is delivering, at the very best, very mixed messages to the public which could put them at risk.”
Critics inside the administration, who asked not to be identified, acknowledge that time was squandered during the weeks before the president began to embrace quarantine policies. They said they were mystified Mr. Pence had escaped blame for the slow response.
As with much of the relationship between the president and the vice president, it has been difficult to discern what goes on between them. “I think the vice president has always viewed his role as making sure the president has the best information possible to make decisions for the American people,” said Marc Short, Mr. Pence’s chief of staff. Aides to Mr. Pence said that included conveying the advice of the medical experts.
Once Mr. Pence took over, administration officials said task force meetings focused more on spin rather than policy, going from operational and decision-making discussions run by Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, to mostly prep sessions for the news briefings that the vice president initially led until Mr. Trump decided he should do them himself. Some officials complained that Mr. Pence’s office abruptly ended a daily morning conference call that Mr. Azar’s team had been leading.
Mr. Pence’s aides took over communications surrounding the virus, insisting they approve interviews, a move that prompted concern that the vice president was trying to silence experts. Mr. Pence’s staff went into overdrive to dispute that, making Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, available for interviews with different outlets. Eventually, Dr. Fauci began booking interviews himself, aggravating aides to both the president and the vice president.
While complimentary of Mr. Pence himself, some administration officials complained that his staff was less concerned about issues like ramping up testing, manufacturing ventilators and repatriating American citizens stuck overseas. Mr. Short has made clear to colleagues that he thinks the lockdowns have gone too far, although the vice president is said not to share that view.
White House officials disputed that Mr. Pence’s team did not focus on issues like supplies and testing early on and said he took over a task force that was dysfunctional under Mr. Azar. They point to a series of actions the administration took in the weeks after Mr. Pence’s takeover on Feb. 26, including suspending travel from Iran, issuing a global travel advisory, increasing inspections of nursing homes, setting up an emergency operations center and pushing to improve testing.
At the start, Mr. Pence’s own steady, mature, relentlessly polite public appearances won wide praise as he conveyed the seriousness of the virus, expressed concern about the victims and projected resolve to combat the pandemic.
“Pence is really good at this. Don’t @ me,” Jane Lynch, the actress and frequent Trump critic, wrote on Twitter on March 10, main many liberals to precise their disagreement anyway. Michael Gerson, a former senior adviser to President George W. Bush, wrote in his Washington Submit column, “By no means has the phrase ‘President Pence’ had a greater ring to it.”
Recognition for Mr. Pence, in fact, was certain to upset Mr. Trump, who likes to be the focus, and he rapidly took over the briefings. At one level, he made some extent of placing the vice chairman in his place, mocking Mr. Pence’s suave dodge of a query in regards to the administration’s refusal to reopen enrollment in Mr. Obama’s well being care program. “I believe that’s one of many biggest solutions I’ve ever heard as a result of Mike was in a position to converse for 5 minutes and never even contact your query,” Mr. Trump mentioned.
Nonetheless, Mr. Pence appears to know when to heed Mr. Trump and when to quietly ignore criticism of him. Each time the president rails towards governors who’ve criticized him, the vice chairman merely stays silent. At one level in March, Mr. Trump admitted that he sought to chop off Democratic governors who weren’t “appreciative” sufficient of him.
“I say, ‘Mike, don’t name the governor of Washington. You’re losing your time with him. Don’t name the girl in Michigan,’” Mr. Trump mentioned.
In interviews, each Govs. Jay Inslee of Washington State and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan mentioned Mr. Pence by no means stopped calling and by no means endorsed the president’s vitriol, however merely proceeded as if it had not occurred.
“The vice chairman has poker face,” mentioned Mr. Inslee, who was referred to as a “snake” by Mr. Trump whilst he was handled professionally by the vice chairman. “I might hope he’s annoyed by it and I don’t press him on that as a result of he’s in a troublesome place. However I attempt to present him encouragement to be as efficient as doable to scale back the pointless tensions which might be attributable to the president’s eruptions. He principally nods his head, understands our place and doesn’t betray his inside considering.”
Ms. Whitmer mentioned she has at all times discovered Mr. Pence “very accessible and cordial” no matter what Mr. Trump mentioned. “I’ve not had a tough time getting in contact with the vice chairman,” she mentioned. “He’ll every so often name completely out of the blue unscheduled simply to examine in or to inform me about one thing coming from” the Federal Emergency Administration Company.
One other governor, who requested to not be named, mentioned Mr. Pence by no means betrays what he actually thinks in regards to the president’s habits. “A number of instances, I say, ‘However Mike, that is simply loopy,’ and generally there might be somewhat pause and I’m ready for him to say, ‘Sure, I do know.’” However he by no means does. As a substitute, Mr. Pence says, “I perceive. Thanks to your enter.”
Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, who has attended briefings with Mr. Pence, mentioned the vice chairman stays disciplined irrespective of how provocative the query. “He’s a talented communicator and is superb at absorbing criticism,” Mr. Schatz mentioned. “Nearly each reply to each query begins with an acknowledgment of how essential the query is and perhaps some reward to your dwelling state governor. At that stage, he’s world class.”
“By way of answering the query in a substantive means,” Mr. Schatz added, “I believe he’s caught as a result of the administration has failed and there is nothing he can do in non-public or in public to spin that.”
Mr. Pence has been pressed to reconcile his personal preliminary statements with the fact that adopted. In early March, he promised that the federal government would distribute four million check kits inside every week. However it was not till mid-April that the nation truly performed four million exams.
The vice chairman’s response was to make a distinction between distributing exams and truly conducting them. “I respect the query,” he advised a reporter who requested about it this previous week, “nevertheless it represents a misunderstanding in your half and, frankly, a whole lot of the folks within the public’s half in regards to the distinction between having a check versus the power to really course of the check.”
In the long run, the disaster has each put Mr. Pence on a way more seen stage than ever whereas concurrently demonstrating the bounds of his affect in an administration headed by Mr. Trump. Tim Pawlenty, the previous Republican governor of Minnesota, mentioned folks anticipating Mr. Pence to power the administration one course or one other had been misguided.
“Process forces and vice presidents don’t get to resolve issues,” he mentioned. “They simply get the chance to nudge the boss in a sure course — and the V.P. has been good nudger below troublesome circumstances.”
Peter Baker reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York.