Trump Has Decided on His Running Mate
Former President Donald Trump revealed Saturday he has chosen his running mate for this November’s presidential election.
Asked by a reporter at a campaign stop in Philadelphia whether he had made the choice, the presumptive Republican nominee responded, “In my mind, yeah.”
Further questioned whether the person knows, Trump answered, “No, nobody knows.”
Fox News correspondent Alexis McAdams was at the same campaign stop at Tony and Nick’s cheesesteak restaurant and also asked the former president about his vice presidential pick.
He said that when he just asked the crowd who they liked for the spot, people shouted out several different names.
“We have a lot of good ones,” Trump said. “I’ll be announcing it right around the time of the convention.”
The Republican National Convention takes place July 15-18 in Milwaukee.
Axios reported this month that Trump began formally vetting eight candidates with background paperwork requests: Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
“Sources familiar with the selection process” told NBC News that Vance and Burgum were considered the top two finalists, with Rubio still in the running.
Politico placed Vance at the top of its shortlist for the vice presidential slot.
A big plus for the senator is that he’s one of Trump’s fiercest and most effective defenders on television. His credentials include being a Yale Law School graduate and a Marine Corps veteran who served in the war in Iraq.
On the negative side, in Politico’s assessment, he is a former critic of the former president, once questioning in a 2016 text to a friend whether Trump was “America’s Hitler.”
Democrats would be able to use Vance’s past statements to attack the Republican candidate.
Meanwhile, Burgum’s positives also include being a good defender of Trump on television as well as having the “look” and demeanor that one would expect of a vice president.
One negative is that his presidential candidacy generated very little excitement, resulting in his dropping out of the race in December before any primary contests.
Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants and fluent in Spanish, therefore he likely could draw more Latino support for Trump.
But, Politico pointed out, the senator sometimes has struggled on big stages, such as during the Republican State of the Union response in 2013 and during a presidential primary debate in 2016.
Trump senior adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement to NBC News that the campaign’s No. 1 criterion for choosing a running mate “is a strong leader who will make a great President for eight years after his next four year term concludes.”
CNN will host the first debate between Trump and President Joe Biden on Thursday night in Atlanta.
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