Good Thursday morning. I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing,

sponsored by the American Alliance for Manufacturing. And I'm Anna Palmer. Jake and I sat down with

Vice President Mike Pence yesterday in Lewisburg, West Virginia, over his speech to House and Senate

Republicans Wednesday evening at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs. Here's what he had to say about whether

he thinks President Trump should release House Republicans' intel memo. I will tell you, I've

always believed in the public's right to know and stand by that principle, but we'll respect

whatever decision the president makes concerning that memo.

He wouldn't talk about whether he had given the president any advice on the issue.

Mostly, Pence wanted to talk about his plan to aggressively fundraise and hold policy events

around the country during the first and second quarter of this year.

I'm going to be going all across this country.

But I expect we're going to spend a fair amount of time in the states that the president carried very strongly.

Indiana being one of them, West Virginia here being another.

And he remains bullish on 2018.

Elections are about choices. If we frame that choice, I think we're going to re-elect

majorities in the House and the Senate.

And I actually think we're going to, when all the dust settles after 2018, I think we're going to have more Republicans in Congress in Washington, D.C. than when we started.

Pence will hold nearly three dozen fundraisers that could raise tens of millions of dollars for House and Senate Republicans.

He will partner with America First Policies, a public policy nonprofit designed to boost the Trump agenda.

He'll hold public events designed to discuss Trump's legislative achievements.

The New York Times has a big story on how special prosecutor Robert Mueller is zeroing in

on a Trump Tower cover story.

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