First in Line

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Bestselling author Kate Andersen Brower introduces us to the second-most-powerful men in the world, exploring the lives and roles of thirteen modern vice presidents—eight Republicans and five Democrats—and the lives of their wives, who are known as the Second Lady. In interviews with more than two hundred people, including all six living former vice presidents, their family members, insiders, and confidants, Brower pulls back the curtain to reveal the sometimes close, often chilly, and always complicated relationship between our modern presidents and their vice presidents. She shares surprising revelations about the relationship between former vice president Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama and how Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump interact behind closed doors.As Brower reveals, the president and vice president share a very tangible sense of admiration mixed with jealousy and resentment—even when the relationship appears to be ideal. Vice presidents owe their position to the president—a connection that affects not only how they are perceived but also their possible future as a presidential candidate, which is tied, for better or worse, to the president they serve. George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan had a famously prickly relationship during the 1980 primary, yet Bush would not have been elected president in 1988 without Reagan’s high approval rating. Al Gore’s 2000 loss, conversely, could partly be attributed to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Current vice president Mike Pence is walking a high-stakes political tightrope as he tries to reassure anxious Republicans while staying on his boss’s good side.First in Line lifts the veil of secrecy surrounding this historic political office to offer us a spellbinding portrait of what it is truly like to be a heartbeat away from the most powerful position in the world.