Vice President J.D. Vance will be the keynote speaker at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in March, “Seen, Heard & Whispered” has learned.
Mr. Vance, perhaps the country’s second most prominent Catholic, trailing only Pope Leo XIV, spoke to the gathering last year, and a source close to the organizers said he’s expected to make a return visit this year.
The vice president has emerged as a crucial conduit for the Trump administration to the country’s conservative-leaning Christians.
He’s also slated to speak at the March for Life on the National Mall on Friday. He spoke to that gathering last year, too.
Mr. Vance, who just announced his wife, Usha, is pregnant with their fourth child, is a convert to Catholicism.
During last year’s prayer breakfast, he said he expected some disagreements between the country’s Catholic leaders and the new administration, but contended that President Trump “has been an incredibly good president for Catholics in the United States of America.”
He also prayed for the health of then-Pope Francis, whom he called “a great pastor” and “a man who can speak the truth of the faith in a very profound way at a moment of great crisis.”
A month later, Mr. Vance headed to the Vatican for a personal visit with the pope on Easter Sunday, a day before Francis died.
Mr. Vance may have his own White House ambitions. He could become the third Catholic president in U.S. history, following in the footsteps of Presidents Kennedy and Biden.
Congress’ Clinton contempt worries Trump ally
Congress is barreling forward with plans to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt for refusing to testify about dealings with Jeffrey Epstein, but that prospect has at least one senior Trump ally worried.
The anonymous Republican, who held a senior position in the first Trump White House, worried about the precedent of taking such a move against a former president.
The former official expected that Democrats would take the opportunity to demand Mr. Trump testify — and to hold him in contempt — in future proceedings.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted last year to subpoena the former president and former first lady. The power couple has said they had little contact with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who took his life in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges, and so they have nothing to share with Congress.
They have also called the subpoenas “legally invalid.”
The committee voted this week to hold them in contempt. The vote on Mr. Clinton was 34-8, with nine Democrats joining all Republicans. The vote on Mrs. Clinton was closer — 28-15 — with three Democrats joining Republicans.
Records show Epstein visited the Clinton White House 17 times. After he left office, Mr. Clinton was an occasional guest on Epstein’s jet, though the former president denies visiting Epstein’s Caribbean island.
If the full House votes to hold the Clintons in contempt, the matter would go to the Justice Department to pursue.
Precedent was set from the Biden Justice Department, which brought cases against Trump aides Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro when they declined to testify in response to subpoenas in the congressional investigation into the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Both men served four months behind bars for those convictions.
Tafoya’s tough slog
Michele Tafoya made a splash with her entry into Minnesota’s Senate race as a Republican, with some politicos in Washington figuring her national profile as a former sports reporter could make for a competitive race.
But those on the ground in Minnesota aren’t buying it.
“Seen, Heard & Whispered” was with a group of pro-life activists who were asked about a Republican’s chances at winning the North Star State’s Senate seat this year, and the conclusion was a resounding “No.”
The last Republican to win a seat was Norm Coleman in 2002, 24 years ago. He lost his reelection bid to Al Franken in 2008, though it was close — the counting and legal challenges lasted more than seven months before Mr. Franken was finally seated in July 2009.
Sen. Tina Smith claimed the seat in 2017 after Mr. Franken’s resignation amid sexual misconduct allegations during the Me Too movement.
Ms. Smith is retiring at the end of this year, leaving her seat open.
Ms. Tafoya, in announcing her candidacy this week, said her state has been riddled with fraud and failed leadership.
“This will be one of the most consequential Senate races in the entire country,” she said in a fundraising email on Thursday.
• “Seen, Heard & Whispered” is a weekly column taking you inside the conversations happening in Washington’s power corridors, the moves being made and the whispers that explain what’s really going on in the nation’s capital. Email tips to whispered@washingtontimes.com.
