Mark went from being a conservative bomb-thrower who had never participated in a successful bipartisan negotiation to being a key representative of the president as the executive and legislative branches flushed out the final details of critical COVID relief legislation. This was his first true test as the president’s chief of staff. I felt it was important he establish that he could set his partisan history aside when the stakes for the country were this high. It could set the tone for how history would view his tenure.
