{"id":2528366,"date":"2026-01-02T05:46:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/when-vice-presidents-are-frozen-in-marble-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T05:48:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:48:40","slug":"when-vice-presidents-are-frozen-in-marble-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/when-vice-presidents-are-frozen-in-marble-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"When vice presidents are frozen in marble &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhen-vice-presidents-are-frozen-in-marble-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2528366&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>This article examines the symbolic and practical legacies of U.S. vice presidents, using Kamala HarrisS recent remarks &#8211; that she will have a marble bust in Congress and is a &#8220;historic figure&#8221; &#8211; as a jumping-off point. It notes that one-third of U.S. presidents (15 of 45) previously served as vice president,and that those who become <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >president receive enduring benefits<\/a> such as Secret service protection and presidential libraries. For vice presidents who do not become president, perks include federal pensions (the piece cites Joe Biden&#8217;s initial pension of about $166,374 and Mike Pence&#8217;s $57,265), book deals, and speaking fees. The Senate maintains a marble bust collection for vice presidents, though production is currently backlogged for recent officeholders. The article also explains the vice president&#8217;s constitutional role as president of the Senate and highlights differing levels of influence through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-judiciary-chairman-says-gun-control-is-top-priority\/\" title=\"Senate Judiciary Chairman Says Gun Control Is \u2018Top Priority\u2019\">tie-breaking votes<\/a>: Biden cast none as VP, Pence cast 13, Harris set a record with over 30, and JD Vance has cast several so far. it describes Vance&#8217;s political posture &#8211; attacking Harris while tying his future to the trump governance&#8217;s fortunes &#8211; and observes that the 2026 midterms will shape his and others&#8217; prospects. The piece is by Jeremy Lott.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">When vice presidents are frozen in marble<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2238271\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/kamala-harris\/\">Kamala Harris<\/a> may or may not run for president in 2028. To hear her tell it, Harris has already won an important victory, and her place in history is secure.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I understand the focus on &lsquo;28 and all that,&rdquo; the former vice president who came short in her 2024 bid for the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/section\/news\/white-house\/\">White House<\/a> said in an interview published in December.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4356866\/trump-rare-earth-minerals-obsession\/\">Trump&rsquo;s rare earth minerals obsession is part of a national security strategy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4362579\/year-zero-modern-middle-east-israel-land-for-peace\/\">Year zero for the modern Middle East: Israel reckons with the futility of &#8216;land for peace&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4364220\/antisemitism-task-force-after-split-heritage-foundation\/\">The Heritage Foundation&#8217;s former antisemitism task force after its split with the think tank<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>&ldquo;But there will be a marble bust of me in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/congress\/\">Congress<\/a>,&rdquo; she told the&nbsp;<em>New York Times<\/em>. &ldquo;I am a historic figure like any vice president of the United States ever was.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>All U.S. vice presidents are indeed historic figures, albeit minor ones. Yet a surprising number of them go on to become president. Forty-five men have been or are the president of the United States. Fifteen of those men &mdash; one-third &mdash; were vice president first.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-vice-presidential-legacies\">Vice presidential legacies?<\/h2>\n<p>Those vice presidents who became president then ran administrations whose legacies are ranked and debated throughout U.S. history. The victors received Secret Service protection for life and a dedicated presidential library to house their papers, which helps make the case for their place in history.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Then-Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) presents Vice President Kamala Harris with a golden gavel after she cast the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/vp-harris-sets-new-record-with-tie-breaking-vote\/\" title=\"VP Harris Makes History With Decisive Tie...Breaking Vote\">32nd tie-breaking vote<\/a> in the Senate, the most ever cast by a vice president on Dec. 5, 2023. (Stephanie Scarbrough\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As for vice presidents who do not become president, they can receive a government pension, provided they have at least five years of total employment with the federal government. Former President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joe-biden\/\">Joe Biden<\/a>, for instance, received a pension that paid $166,374 a year to start, after he served as vice president in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/barack-obama\/\">Barack Obama&rsquo;s<\/a> administration, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Biden&rsquo;s payout was sweetened by his 36 years in the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/section\/senate\/\">Senate<\/a> before the vice presidency. President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\">Donald Trump&rsquo;s<\/a> first vice president, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/mike-pence\/\">Mike Pence<\/a>, started receiving his pension with much less money, only $57,265 annually, according to NTUF. Pence&rsquo;s time on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-govt-adding-87k-irs-agents-to-payroll\/\" title=\"Federal Govt. adding 87K IRS agents to payroll\">federal government payroll<\/a>, and now his pension, stem from his four years as vice president, plus 12 years as a House member from Indiana.<\/p>\n<p>Former vice presidents are also able to parlay their experience and connections into book deals, paid speaking engagements, and other opportunities. Harris is currently hawking her book&nbsp;<em>107 Days<\/em>, a campaign memoir about how she tried, and failed, to keep Trump from retaking the Oval Office after Biden dropped out and endorsed her as the Democratic Party&rsquo;s standard-bearer.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday&rsquo;s presidential understudies are also frequently mentioned on the quiz show <em>Jeopardy!<\/em> And, as Harris said, their 3D likenesses eventually join the Senate&rsquo;s vice presidential bust collection.<\/p>\n<p>Sculpting those busts can take quite some time, however. The queue is backed up at the moment, with marble busts for Biden, Pence, and Harris still in production.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate hosts the marble collection because of the vice president&rsquo;s historic, constitutional role as president of the upper chamber. Vice presidents preside over the Senate, although by tradition they do not take part in speechifying and debates. Instead, their chief power is to cast tiebreaking votes in closely divided Senates.<\/p>\n<p>The number of tiebreaking votes that happen varies wildly by administration. Biden did not have the opportunity to cast a single tiebreaking vote in his eight-year vice presidency.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, Harris cast a record-breaking 33 votes in four years. The 50-50 Senate tie during the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/biden-administration\/\">Biden administration&rsquo;s<\/a> first two years helps explain this. Pence cast 13 Senate tie-breakers over his four years as vice president, all with a Republican majority. Trump&rsquo;s second vice president, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/jd-vance\/\">JD Vance<\/a>, formerly a freshman senator from Ohio, has thus far cast seven deciding votes, according to the Senate website.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-vance-and-the-midterm-elections\">Vance and the midterm elections<\/h2>\n<p>Vance, like Harris, will eventually have his own bust in the Senate. In 2024, he attacked Harris with gusto on the campaign trail, took a dig at her on social media over allegations that sections of an earlier book&nbsp;of hers had been cribbed from Wikipedia entries, and still contrasts her role in the Biden administration&rsquo;s lax border policies with the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/trump-administration\/\">Trump administration&rsquo;s<\/a> more enforcement-minded approach.<\/p>\n<p>But to her comments that she is &ldquo;a historic figure?&rdquo; So far, crickets.<\/p>\n<p>What that likely means is that Vance doesn&rsquo;t view her as a credible threat to his own White House ambitions. Instead, Vance, like Harris before him, has hitched his near-term political career to the success of the administration that he serves.<\/p>\n<p>The <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/2026-elections\/\">2026 midterm elections<\/a> stand in his way. Current polling is not favorable to Republicans. A significant loss in November would hobble his party and hurt his chances of succeeding Trump, so he&rsquo;s doing what he can to avert that disaster.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3916869\/kamala-harris-democrats-post-trump-message-fix-flawed-status-quo\/\">KAMALA HARRIS SAYS DEMOCRATS NEED POST-TRUMP MESSAGE TO FIX &lsquo;FLAWED STATUS QUO&rsquo;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Do you want rents to keep dropping and wages to keep rising, as they have over the last few months?&rdquo; he asked a stadium full of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/turning-point-usa\/\">Turning Point USA<\/a> conservative activists at their December convention. In response to cheers, he urged them, &ldquo;Then mobilize with us. Don&rsquo;t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/joe-biden-urges-myanmars-military-to-relinquish-power-release-officials\/\" title=\"Joe ... urges Myanmar\u2019s military to relinquish power, release officials\">hand power back<\/a> to the people who tanked the economy in the first place. Join the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/america-first\/\">America First<\/a> movement, and you will always have a place on our great team.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The vice president noted that late January would mark the first anniversary of the second Trump administration, adding, &ldquo;I am damn proud of our record so far.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><em>Jeremy Lott (@jeremylottidiary) is the author of <\/em>The Warm Bucket Brigade: The Story of the American Vice Presidency<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harris claims historic status despite 2028 doubts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2692,"featured_media":2528367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/WB.Congress.010726.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[33729,69929,69930,43693,47813],"class_list":["post-2528366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-american-history","tag-political-monuments","tag-statues-sculpture","tag-vice-presidents","tag-washington-politics"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/WB.Congress.010726.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2528366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2528370,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528366\/revisions\/2528370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2528367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2528366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2528366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2528366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}