A key part of Pence’s official role is to pilot Trump’s agenda at the Capitol. He met with the conservative House Freedom Caucus on Monday, a day on which he was also spotted in the GOP cloakroom in the lower chamber. The next day, he met with the more centrist Tuesday Group.
Meanwhile, his longtime aide Marc Short is now the Trump administration’s director of legislative affairs.
While there are tensions bubbling just beneath the surface of the relationship between Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill, Pence’s role as de facto point man soothes nerves.
Rep. Luke Messer (R-Ind.), the GOP Policy Committee chairman who now occupies the seat Pence previously held in the House, asserted that the vice president is “considered an honest broker, and he’s got relationships built over time. Knowing who someone is over time helps build trust.”
Messer added, “With that trust comes influence.”
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