■ The COVID-19 response is allowing the spotlight to shine on Mike Pence.

VP’s steadying actions seen influencing prospects for ’24 race

WASHINGTON — Watching as nearly 1,000 Air Force Academy cadets celebrated their graduation standing 8 feet apart, Vice President Mike Pence choked up briefly at that slice of life in a nation transformed.

Pence told the graduates they would “inspire confidence that we will prevail against the invisible enemy.”

In many ways, it is a job that he has subtly taken on, trying to instill confidence in the nation as it confronts the COVID-19 pandemic.

At times, Pence has found himself struggling to square scientific guidance with a message that will please President Donald Trump, who tapped him to chair his coronavirus task force. The vice president has attempted to limit his role to sober presentations of facts and best public health practices.

Vice presidents often hold dueling political ambitions, in service of the president’s but also of their own. Pence keenly knows his actions will help define not only Trump’s re-election chances in 2020 but also his own prospects for a promotion in 2024.

Pence has put his credibility on the line to back up the president, most significantly as he offered rosy estimations of the country’s ability to conduct testing.

On March 9, Pence pledged that “before the end of this week, another 4 million tests will be distributed.”

Only last weekend did the nation hit the 4 million mark for tests performed.

Pence’s trip to the Air Force Academy in Colorado last weekend was a symbolic nod to returning to normalcy.

He traveled Tuesday to a General Electric plant in Wisconsin and is scheduled to visit a General Motors plant in Indiana next week.

In recent days, Pence oversaw the release of federal guidelines on how states can ease restrictions meant to slow the virus’ spread. He and federal medical experts insist that there are enough COVID-19 tests available to begin the first stage of the reopening effort, though there are documented shortages nationwide.

Now, aides are hopeful Pence is closing the book on the darkest days of the outbreak.

“Now that we’ve flattened the curve,” said Katie Miller, the vice president’s spokeswoman, “it’s talking about the stories of American ingenuity and how we all came together.”

Pence was quicker than others inside the White House to recognize the medical and political threats posed by the virus. He transformed a task force that many in the administration viewed as a bureaucratic muddle into a decision-making body and enlisted Surgeon General Jerome Adams and FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn.

“Mike Pence has been working day and night on this,” Trump said earlier this month.

Mike Pence