According to a report from Politico, Vice President Mike Pence is looking at both the 2020 election and beyond to 2024 when he hopes to be the Republican nominee for president at the same time he dials back his appearances as part of the White House coronavirus pandemic task force.
As the report notes, Pence, like vice presidents before him, is also facing the prospect that his presidential prospects will be colored by his time serving another president and, in his case, the coronavirus pandemic will loom large.
"Donald Trump is grasping for ways to impress voters who are scrutinizing his response to the coronavirus pandemic, knowing they will seal his fate as a one- or two-term president in the 2020 election. His vice president is juggling two elections at once," the report by Politico's Gabby Orr begins.
Noting, "His success or failure will likely determine the outcome of Trump’s last presidential election — and shape Pence’s first presidential election, should he run in 2024," the report goes on to point out that "Whatever transpires as Trump encourages schools and businesses to reopen could either pay dividends for Pence down the road or imperil his political future before he’s even had a chance to become a presidential hopeful himself."
The report states that Pence is currently in the process of "transferring oversight of the pandemic to the Federal Emergency Management Agency by Memorial Day weekend" and is moving on to other vice presidential duties, but some observers say that damage to his future prospects may have already been done.
“The two problems vice presidents have when they run for president is the baggage from the administration they served in and the fact that it’s hard to emerge from the shadows,” explained author Joel Goldstein, who wrote The White House Vice Presidency: The Path to Significance, Mondale to Biden, before adding, "This role has allowed Pence to make news and be visible, but if he runs in 2024, he also won’t be able to say, ‘While Trump was messing things up or making contentious comments, I was sticking to the task and working effectively with governors.’”
One person in the White House who is close to Pence agrees.
"One Republican close to the White House said the longer Pence remains the public face of the administration’s coronavirus response, the more susceptible to criticism he becomes — especially as efforts to rescue the economy, by sending workers and consumers back into their communities, run the risk of creating deeper health problems closer to the 2020 election," Orr reports. "This person said Pence may have signed his own death warrant' when he first took over the coronavirus task force because no amount of loyalty will shield him from becoming Trump’s fall guy if the virus returns this fall and costs the president a second term."
According to Goldstein, Pence's efforts on behalf of the president will likely become fodder for Republican lawmakers also seeking the 2024 nomination.
"The trouble for Pence is that 'other Republicans running for president are going to have every incentive to say things should have been done differently,'" wrote Orr, quoting Goldstein explaining, “So he can talk about working effectively with governors, and I think there’s been plenty of indications that he has, but there are still going to be voices who say, ‘Why did you do this? Why did you do that?’”
"One former White House official said Trump’s dubious medical claims are likely to become an albatross around Pence’s neck if he touts his leadership of the coronavirus task force in a future presidential primary," the report states. "But it also concerned Pence allies, who have long wondered how the vice president will survive thorny questions about Trump’s most controversial statements — comments that have sparked days-long news cycles, created diplomatic crises and alienated key voters — if he runs as the president’s natural successor four years from now."
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