Azar's absence didn't go unnoticed by allies worried about his standing in the administration and the way he's catching more flak for missteps. Azar was front and center Thursday at a Capitol Hill briefing with House members, during which he took heat from some lawmakers over transparency and whether his department is adequately prepared for the stealthy disease.

Asked why Azar didn’t attend Wednesday's televised briefing, a Pence spokesperson said that Azar left for his office after the task force meeting, and officials wanted to make room on stage for Ben Carson, the Housing and Urban Development secretary and also a task force member. A spokesperson for Azar said that members of the task force will be “rotating through as necessary” now that the group is doing daily briefings.

The health secretary has in the last week emerged as a target inside and outside the administration, as officials look to apportion blame for a U.S. outbreak that caught federal officials by surprise and has already claimed at least 11 lives. Public health officials have warned that people in the Seattle area are at elevated risk for the virus, after a Washington state nursing home became the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, prompting the White House visit Thursday.

Pence asked Azar not to attend Wednesday's press conference, said two individuals with knowledge of events. Pence's office did not respond to questions about whether Azar was asked to sit out the briefing. Azar supports efforts to rotate the speakers at task force press conferences and always pushes for medical professionals to play leading roles, said a third individual familiar with the secretary's thinking.

However, Pence's office and Azar's allies stressed that Azar's absence from the Thursday trip to Washington state was because of other commitments and that the health secretary's role has not been minimized. Azar has publicly praised Pence for his leadership of the task force, and his supporters say the health secretary is doing the hard work of fighting the coronavirus outbreak — even if it's increasingly behind the scenes, in a supporting role to Pence.

Two officials said that the White House has elevated other senior leaders to the task force as part of a push by Pence's office to ensure that women and people of color are represented, after weeks of criticism that the Azar-led task force was overwhelmingly white and male.

It’s the latest frustration for Azar, who handled every major coronavirus announcement in January and most of February, but had little advance warning before Pence replaced him last Wednesday night as the leader of the task force.

Azar's allies have struggled to rally support for him in the face of sustained criticism for delays rolling out coronavirus lab tests. They've portrayed Azar as poorly served by officials like CDC Director Robert Redfield, whose agency has repeatedly stumbled as the global outbreak has worsened. Azar moved this week to stabilize his department's response by tapping Robert Kadlec, the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, to run efforts. Kadlec will work alongside Brian Harrison, Azar's chief of staff, who had largely coordinated the health department's response across January and February.

Meanwhile, Carson, the former neurosurgeon whose loyalty to President Donald Trump has endeared him to some White House officials, took the microphone on Wednesday night to talk about pharmaceutical companies’ cooperation on developing therapies.

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Pence spokesperson Katie Miller told reporters after the briefing not to read too much into Azar’s absence, but that officials simply wanted to make room for Carson on stage.

In addition to frustration with Azar’s leadership of the task force, the White House has been unhappy with HHS’ communication strategy, including a POLITICO profile of top scientist Anthony Fauci that White House officials thought distracted from the effort to fight the outbreak.

Both Azar and Fauci briefed House lawmakers Thursday morning but it was Azar who was singled out over the administration's response, including whistleblower allegations that federal workers did not have the proper protective gear or training when responding to the virus.

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif), accused Azar of withholding information about the HHS whistleblower’s allegations in a heated exchange, according to people in the room. Takano later told reporters that he believes HHS is slow-walking a meeting with members on the the topic; Kadlec had committed a week earlier to a briefing. Takano’s district houses March Air Reserve Base, where U.S. evacuees from the outbreak’s epicenter in Wuhan, China, have been quarantined.

"The whistleblower’s allegations are serious and HHS is conducting an ongoing, comprehensive internal investigation in response to the whistleblower’s claims," an HHS spokesperson told POLITICO. "HHS is also conducting an ongoing, comprehensive investigation into what protocols and procedures were followed during the first repatriations."

Adam Cancryn and Brianna Ehley contributed to this report