Vance is working to boost Trump’s most controversial picks

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

The role of showing nominees around Capitol Hill is an unusual one for a vice president-elect. The job usually goes to a former senator who has close ties on the Hill or a more junior aide.

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

“JD probably has a lot of current allies in the Senate and so it makes sense to use him in that capacity,” Short said.

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

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

Vance was a constant presence, even if he kept a low profile. The Ohio senator has spent much of the past two weeks in Palm Beach, according to people familiar with his plans, playing an active role in the transition, for which he serves as honorary chair.

Vance stayed at a lodge on the gilded club property, where rooms are adorned with cherubs, oriental rugs and intricate gold inlays. It’s a world away from the famous hardscrabble upbringing that Vance documented in the memoir that made him famous, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

His young children sometimes joined him at Mar-a-Lago. Vance was photographed in shorts and a polo shirt playing with his children on the property’s waterfront with a large palm frond, a US Secret Service robotic security dog ​​in the distance.

On the rare days he’s not in Palm Beach, Vance joins the sessions remotely via Zoom.

Although he took a hiatus from TV interviews after months of constant appearances, Vance has been active in the meetings, which began immediately after the election and include interviews as well as presentations on the pros and cons of the candidates.

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

Defending himself against criticism that he missed a Senate vote to confirm one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, Vance wrote that he was meeting at the time “with President Trump to interview for several positions for our government, including for the FBI director. “

“I tend to think it’s more important to get an FBI director to dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 and not 49-45,” Vance added to X. “But that’s just me.” .

Although Vance did not enter the transition with a list of people he wanted to see in specific roles, he and his friend, Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr., who is also a member of the transition team, were eager to see former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. they find roles in administration.

Trump ended up selecting Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence, a powerful position that heads the nation’s spy agencies and acts 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 push from 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 director of legislative affairs.

Allies say it’s too early to discuss what portfolio Vance might take to the White House. While he gravitates toward issues like trade, immigration and technology policy, Vance sees his role as doing whatever Trump needs.

Vance was seen days after the election giving his son’s Boy Scout troop a tour of the Capitol and was there on the day of the leadership election. He returned in earnest this week, first with Gaetz — perhaps Trump’s most divisive pick — and then with Hegseth, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, according to an investigative 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 on the Senate Armed Services Committee, met with the defense secretary nominee.

While a president’s nominees typically visit the offices of individual senators, meeting them on their turf, the freshman senator — who is accompanied everywhere by a large Secret Service detail that makes travel more difficult — instead brought Gaetz into a room in the Capitol on Wednesday. and Hegseth at his office on Thursday. The senators came to them.

Vance got to the polls Wednesday and Thursday, but missed others Thursday afternoon.

Vance is expected to continue to leverage his Senate connections after Trump takes office. But many Republicans there have longer relationships with Trump himself.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said Trump was often the first person to call him back when trying to reach high-level White House officials during Trump’s first term.

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

“They’re going to divvy up the names based on who has the most conviction here,” Cramer said, but added, “Whoever is his connection isn’t going to work on it as much as he wants to.”

Cramer complimented the Ohio senator, saying he was “nice” and “interesting” to be around.

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

Under the Constitution, Vance will also have a role in presiding over the Senate and breaking tie votes. But he is not likely to be needed as often as Kamala Harris, who broke a record number of ties for Democrats as vice president, because Republicans will have a bigger cushion in the chamber next year.

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