GOP vice presidential candidates in Congress burnish their credentials while fawning over Trump

WASHINGTON — For congressional leaders, weekly press conferences are a time to outline a policy agenda, communicate a message and draw a contrast with the opposing party.

For Chairman of the House Republican Conference Elise Stefanikan aspiring vice president, they are also an opportunity to stand in front of a TV camera and praise donald trump.

“America is uniting behind President Trump to save America and fire Joe Biden,” Stefanik, RN.Y., told reporters in his opening remarks at a recent news conference, congratulating him on winning a primary race before moving on to legislative business.

Stefanik also used her position on the House education committee to tap into the conservative zeitgeist, confronting college presidents during televised hearings, fueling several layoffs amid campus protests over Israel and Gaza.

And she is not alone. Other vice presidential candidates such as Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., are also taking advantage of the opportunities offered to them in Congress to burnish their credentials and appeal to Trump. This includes the use of your voting cards, committee seats, procedural tools and – perhaps most importantly – your ability to appear on TV to speak to an audience of one.

“He understands the devil in the details. So he puts his brilliant daughter-in-law in charge of our RNC apparatus,” Scott said on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show after Trump installed Lara Trump as the new co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

“At the end of the day, you want the ball in the hands of the best player on the field. That player is Donald Trump,” he added in what appeared to be a thinly veiled vice presidential audition tape.

For decades, the Capitol has been a powerful launching pad for vice presidential candidates. Over the past 20 years, six of the eight chosen were full members of Congress. A seventh, Mike Pence, was a former member who became governor of Indiana. Going back to 1992, nine in ten running mates had experience serving in Congress (the exception was Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, in 2008).

Sen. Tim KaineD-Va., who was picked for vice president by Hillary Clinton in 2016, said the nature of the GOP fight on Capitol Hill is “different” than it has been in the past.

“Typically, being too bold about your ambition is probably not a good thing. But Donald Trump is not your average guy. So I think the maneuver is very unusual, but it is in line with what people understand about Trump,” Kaine said in an interview. “The way to impress him is not to be a dutiful soldier who just keeps his head down and works. The way to impress him is to really flatter and flatter him.”

Greene, the far-right congresswoman who indicated interest in being vice president, sought to curry favor with Trump by engaging in a weeks-long push to recall House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., accusing him of betraying the Republican Party and the MAGA movement. His attempt failed on Wednesday, when the vast majority of Republicans and Democrats voted to reject his motion. Trump avoided the confusion, offering words of support to both sides.

“I absolutely love Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Trump said on social media after voting closed, adding that “it was not the time” for his motion to vacate the House speaker’s seat.

Vance, a former Trump critic who became a staunch ally and was elected for the first time in 2022, took to the Sunday talk circuit to align himself with a central theme of Trump’s campaign: that Congress should not have certified the 2020 election for Biden, even though he won.

“If I were vice president, I would have told the states — like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others — that we needed to have multiple slates of voters, and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought for it from there,” Vance said. he said recently on ABC’s “This Week.” “This is the legitimate way to handle an election that many people, including myself, feel had a lot of problems in 2020.”

In contrast, Rubio and Scott voted with the vast majority of the Senate to certify Biden’s victory hours after police cleared the Jan. 6 rioters from the Capitol. Stefanik and Greene were among 139 House Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 result.

Trump’s election denial allegations have been a central theme of his campaign as he vows revenge on his enemies. Scott and Rubio took note. Scott repeatedly refused to say this month on NBC’s “Meet The Press” whether he would accept the results of the 2024 election. Rubio he said on ABC that some Jan. 6 defendants were “blatantly charged” with trespassing on Capitol grounds.

Vance has also carved out a niche as an outspoken opponent of U.S. assistance to Ukraine, aligning himself with many Trump voters.

A recent vote on an aid package for Ukraine and Israel highlighted divisions. Vance and Rubio voted against, while Scott was in favor, but lost the vote. In the House, where the bills were dismantled, Stefanik voted in favor of Israel but not Ukraine. Greene voted against both measures.

In his declarationScott attacked Biden: “Congress’s effort to support our allies should be applauded, but President Biden’s foreign policies have been a total failure.”

Rubio’s “no” vote on aid to Ukraine and Israel highlights his evolution since 2016, when he presented himself as an outspoken foreign policy hawk who advocates an active U.S. role in shaping world affairs. Critics accuse Rubio of favoring MAGA-style nationalism, but Rubio’s allies say his views reflect changing realities in the U.S. and around the world.

Among the rumored vice presidential candidates this year, Rubio was less bombastic about Trump and instead leaned on his legislative resume. He used his position as the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee to highlight his aggressive approach to China, including as an early proponent of legislation to ban TikTok, a popular app owned by a Beijing-based company that answers to the Chinese Communist Party. Allies note that he helped shape parts of the 2017 tax cuts, Trump’s signature domestic achievement as president.

Part of Rubio and Scott’s appeal is that they are both beloved by Republican donors who are skeptical of Trump and his MAGA movement. This is less true in the case of Vance and Greene.

But Rubio is also careful to avoid criticizing Trump and is quick to dismiss questions from reporters about his controversial or offensive statements. He appears aware of Trump’s red line of not granting any legitimacy to the dozens of criminal charges he faces. Rubio even endorsed Trump’s sweeping claims of presidential immunity of prosecution for potentially committing crimes.

“Hillary said to me, ‘There are better political choices than you, but if something happened to me, you would be a good president.’ This is not how Donald Trump will approach the issue,” Kaine said. “He’s going to approach it like, ‘Who’s going to be the most loyal to me?’ When it seems that, to be in the race, you can’t even say that you will accept the election result? That is very dangerous.

This article was originally published in NBCNews. with