a report has surfaced that in the final days before passage of the bill, Pence pushed to label the bill “Ryancare.”
“The President and I are grateful for Speaker Paul Ryan and all the House Republicans who stood with us in this effort to begin the end of Obamacare,” said the Vice President, who lamented, “As we all learned yesterday, Congress just wasn’t ready.”
.. Pence vowed that they will cut corporate taxes. He said they would cut business taxes “to 15 percent so American companies will invest in American operations that create American jobs.”
Pence says Trump will keep promise of overhauling Affordable Care Act
Vice President Pence said that President Trump intends to keep his promise to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, pledging that the legislation’s collapse Friday was a setback that “won’t last very long.”
“President Trump is never going to stop fighting to keep his promises to the American people,” Pence said
.. “But as we all learned yesterday, Congress just wasn’t ready,” Pence said.
.. Pence pointed to a Saturday morning tweet from Trump suggesting Democrats would be forced to work with Republicans on a replacement bill once the Affordable Care Act “explodes.”
Mike Pence Finds Himself in Unusual Role in Mike Flynn’s Firing
But Mr. Pence also learned he remains very much a junior partner in the still-forming White House power structure, as a timeline shows President Donald Trump knew about Mr. Flynn’s deceptions for two weeks without informing his No. 2.
.. The warning from the Justice Department about Mr. Flynn’s inconsistencies was delivered to the president’s chief counsel, Donald McGahn, who informed Mr. Trump. It’s unclear who else knew.
.. and a flashy style that cuts against the former Indiana governor’s religious beliefs.
.. is the latest incident to raise doubts about Mr. Trump’s creation of an informal power-sharing arrangement among top advisers. Unlike his predecessors, he has placed himself at the center of a spinning wheel of former campaign advisers, family, confidants and aides
.. “This is something entirely different. The ineptitude, the sloppiness, the incompetence and the chaos are unprecedented.”
.. This is all a part of the way he operates. He keeps his adversaries off balance and he keeps people guessing.”
.. Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has influence over everything from foreign policy to job creation and may be the person in the West Wing the president trusts most. Chief strategist Steve Bannon helped craft the president’s populist identity and also has a hand in foreign policy through a new seat on the National Security Council. Mr. Pence is the main point of contact for Republicans on Capitol Hill.
.. Some Republicans have been talking to Mr. Trump’s team and urging them to put in place a system that would impose more order. It isn’t clear that is what Mr. Trump wants. Friends say he likes to “curate” opinions from people he trusts inside and outside of government—sounding people out on what they think he should be doing.
.. A senior White House official said Wednesday that one course correction will be to hold more campaign-style rallies meant to deliver an “unfiltered” message to Americans. One such event is scheduled for Saturday evening in Orlando, Fla., and more will be coming, the official said.
.. Multiple candidates have turned down the position of White House communications director, forcing press secretary Sean Spicer to perform double duty
.. what some Republicans hope is that Mr. Trump will further empower Mr. Pence
.. After a tape surfaced during the campaign showing Mr. Trump making lewd comments toward women, Mr. Trump phoned Mr. Pence’s wife, Karen, to offer reassurance
.. Mr. Trump urged him to go see the Douglas MacArthur statue.
.. pay respects to one of the military leaders Mr. Trump most admires
After Mike Flynn, Donald Trump’s White House Is at a Crossroads
Democrats in Congress will demand to know more about those conversations now, and especially what Mr. Trump knew of them. But that may not even be the administration’s biggest headache. The issue that has always been looming just behind the Flynn controversy is the more explosive question of whether there were covert contacts between the Trump team and Russian representatives in an attempt to influence the presidential campaign.
The inquiry can intensify in several ways in the weeks ahead. Democrats are pressing for a joint House-Senate intelligence committee inquiry, or the formation of a select committee specifically charged with investigating the question of Russian interference in the election.
.. If Republicans balk at going those routes—and signals so far suggest they would—then Democrats will try to increase pressure publicly. In that effort, they may find friends in the intelligence community. It’s clear that the president has made enemies within the intelligence world, who appear willing to leak what they are finding on the Russia connection if there isn’t an official route by which it can surface.
.. There are multiple power centers within the White House, but it may be that Mr. Pence will emerge from the Flynn episode as a particularly important one. Mr. Pence seemed irritated enough at being misled by Mr. Flynn to have acted on the irritation, rather than letting it pass.
.. Mr. Pence has always had the potential to emerge as a dominant player
.. That hasn’t been the case so far with Mr. Priebus, in part because Mr. Trump reportedly has only recently indicated that he wants him to exert that kind of control.