Karl Rove: 'No Surprise' Pence Promoted to Head Transition

A vice president is "really important to the success of a presidency," and it was no surprise that President-elect Donald Trump moved running mate Mike Pence into the role of heading his transition team, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove said Monday.

"It happened also with [President] George W. Bush," Rove told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" co-host Martha MacCallum. "The head of the transition through the election was Clay Johnson and after the election, Dick Cheney was moved into the leadership of the transition."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had served as Trump's transition chief until last week, but was demoted from that role on Friday, a week after two of his former associates were found guilty in the New Jersey Bridge-gate scandal.

Officially, Christie, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former presidential candidate Ben Carson, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn will be vice chairmen of the transition, Trump's staff said in a statement. However, insiders told The New York Post that Trump was "disgusted" with Christie over the scandal and was pushing him away from his inner circle.

Rove said Monday that the changes are a sign of Trump's confidence in Pence.

"He has to fill in 4,000 positions in the government and needs somebody focused on that like a laser, bringing forth suggestions for him [as] the president to consider."

Meanwhile, Rove said he does not know former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon, who Trump named as his chief strategist over the weekend, with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus named chief of staff.

"He represents a populist alt-right theory which is not traditional conservatism," said Rove. "That's one of the things that made Donald Trump's candidacy different. It's populistic and nationalistic. Here we have an announcement in which they were detailed as equal partners, Bannon's name first ... it will be an interesting experiment to see a White House where you have two people in charge."

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