Vance works to highlight Trump’s most controversial picks

Vance is expected to accompany other candidates in meetings in the coming weeks as he tries to use his two years in the Senate to help advance Trump’s election.

The role of promoting candidates around Capitol Hill is an unusual one for the vice president-elect. Often the job is given to a former senator or a more junior aide with close ties on the Hill.

Marc Short, Trump’s first director of legislative affairs and who also served as chief of staff to Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, who spent more than a decade in Congress and led the former president’s transition, said the role fits Vance this time around he said. before his first term.

“JD probably has a lot of existing allies in the Senate, so it makes sense for him to be used in that capacity,” Short said.

Unlike the first Trump transition, which took place in front of cameras at Trump Tower in New York and at the president-elect’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, this transition largely took place behind closed doors in Palm Beach, Florida.

There, a small group of officials and aides meet daily at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to vet possible candidates and interview job candidates. The group includes billionaire Elon Musk, who spent so much time at the club that Trump joked he couldn’t get rid of it.

Vance remained a constant presence, albeit with a lower profile. The Ohio senator has spent much of the past two weeks in Palm Beach and has played an active role in the transition process, serving as honorary chairman, according to sources familiar with his plans.

Vance is staying at a country house on the grounds of the gilded club, where rooms are decorated with angels, oriental rugs and intricate gold embroidery. It’s a far cry from the famously difficult upbringing Vance documented in the memoir that made him famous, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

His young children also joined him at Mar-a-Lago from time to time. Vance, in shorts and a polo shirt, was photographed playing with his children on the property’s seawall with a large palm frond, a U.S. Secret Service robotic security dog ​​in the distance.

On the rare days he is not in Palm Beach, Vance attends sessions remotely via Zoom.

Although Vance has taken a break from regular television interviews for months, he takes an active role in the meetings that begin immediately after the election, which include presentations as well as interviews on the pros and cons of the candidates.

Among those interviewed: Candidates to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray, Vance wrote in a since-deleted social media post.

Defending himself against criticism that he missed the Senate vote confirming one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, Vance wrote that he met with President Trump at the time “to meet with many positions on behalf of our government, including the FBI Director.” ”

Vance added of X: “I think it’s more important to find an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than for the Republicans to lose 49 to 46 votes instead of 49 to 45.” “But that’s just me.”

Although Vance didn’t come to the transition with a list of people he wanted to see in specific roles, he and his friend, who is also a member of the transition team, were eager to see Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. finds positions in management.

Trump chose Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence; it’s a powerful position at the top of the nation’s spy agencies, serving as the president’s top intelligence adviser. And he chose Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, a massive agency that oversees everything from drug and food safety to Medicare and Medicaid.

Vance was also a big supporter of Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who will serve as Trump’s “border czar.”

In another sign of Vance’s influence, James Braid, a top aide to the senator, is expected to serve as Trump’s legislative affairs director.

Allies say it is too early to discuss what portfolio Vance might take on in the White House. Vance sees his role as doing whatever Trump needs as he leans into issues like trade, immigration and technology policy.

Vance was seen giving his son’s Boy Scout troop a tour of the Capitol days after the election, and he was there the day of the leadership election. He bounced back in earnest, first with Gaetz (arguably Trump’s most controversial pick) and then with Hegseth, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, according to a research report made public this week. Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter was consensual and denied any wrongdoing.

Vance hosted Hegseth in his Senate office as GOP senators, including those who sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee, filtered through to meet with the defense secretary nominee.

While a president’s nominees typically visit individual senators’ offices and meet with them in their districts, the freshman senator, accompanied everywhere by a large Secret Service detail that makes getting around more cumbersome, instead brought Gaetz to a room at the Capitol on Wednesday. and Hegseth went to his office on Thursday. Senators came to them.

Vance voted Wednesday and Thursday but missed the others as of Thursday afternoon.

Vance is expected to continue strengthening his relationships in the Senate after Trump takes office. But many Republicans there have longer-standing relationships with Trump.

Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said that when trying to reach senior White House officials during Trump’s first term, Trump was often the first person to call him.

“He has the most active Rolodex of anyone I’ve ever met,” Cramer said, adding that Vance would be a good addition.

“They’re going to be divvying up the names based on who has the most persuasive power here,” Cramer said, but added: “Whoever his contact is is not going to work as hard on this as he wants.”

Cramer praised the Ohio senator and said he was “nice” and “interesting” to be around.

“He doesn’t have long relationships,” he said. “But we all like people who do what we do. I mean, it’s kind of a natural kinship, but it’s probably not that personally connected.”

Under the Constitution, Vance will also have the duty to preside over the Senate and overturn tie-breaking votes. But he won’t be needed as often for that as Kamala Harris, who tied with Democrats in record numbers as vice president, because Republicans will have a bigger cushion in the chamber next year.

Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.