People have been saying that x is a smokescreen for y for a while now. They said it when Mike Pence went to Hamilton on the same day Trump settled his university court case for example.
I don't know if I believe any of it any more. No one is coming out of the first month of Trump's presidency smelling nice. Not congress, not Trump, not anyone on Trump's staff. Mike Pence has been doing OK, but that's mainly by being absent from major news stories altogether. Who is congress trying to smokescreen from? Ordinary people on the left are stressed out, afraid and angry; their faith in the government is at an all time low. Thanks to Trump and Spicer's antics, they're being bombarded by "the administration is evil" messages from media that is normally decently center line. That's bad news for congressional Republicans, nothing gets people out to vote like fear and anger. Meanwhile they've not got that much to hide from their own base, which at least in theory wants the laws they're trying to push through.
If congressional Republicans really wanted to secure their place they'd clear up all ambiguity about the fate of the ACA, even if that meant launching a message separate from Trump. Because that's their main PR disaster at this point. But they're not going to do that, because they aren't geniuses, and they haven't even decided amongst themselves what to do about the ACA.
The people in power aren't playing 4D chess, they're playing football with half a team.