Washington (CNN) Mike Pence: Former Indiana governor; Vice President of the United States; and President Donald Trump's rhetoric translator.

Pence, whose political pedigree and personality make him the antithesis of Trump, has spent much of his first two weeks as vice president explaining what Trump meant in interviews, at events and -- most commonly -- on Twitter.

While there is a limit to the amount of damage control the vice president can actually do, given the outsized amount of attention Pence's front man garners, the act of explaining what Trump meant has fallen squarely on Pence.

The role each vice president plays changes from administration to administration. With Trump, Pence has regularly been called on to say things like "what you heard there" or "the President is simply expressing" -- phrases that attempt to lower the temperature on Trump comments that have angered Democrats and Republicans.

This is not unfamiliar territory for Pence: For much of the 2016 campaign, the former Indiana governor was tasked with turning down the heat on Trump's campaign rhetoric and attempting to make it more palpable for rank-and-file Republican voters.

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