So what do you all think about this possibility?
Donald Trump reportedly picks Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as VP
Holly Bailey 45 minutes ago .
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets Indiana Gov. Mike Pence during a campaign rally July 12 in Westfield, Indiana. (Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets Indiana Gov. Mike Pence during a campaign rally July 12 in Westfield, Indiana. (Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)
NEW YORK — Multiple reports on Thursday indicated that Donald Trump is set to pick Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his vice presidential running mate, a decision he is expected to formally announce Friday morning.
Citing unnamed sources close to the campaign, both Roll Call and CBS News reported Trump was expected to offer Pence the job in a phone call Thursday afternoon. The New York Times also reported that campaign officials had also “signaled†to Republicans in Washington that Pence was Trump’s pick. And the Indianapolis Star, Pence’s hometown paper, also reported the Indiana governor was Trump’s pick, citing unnamed sources.
But Trump campaign officials quickly tried to tamp down those reports. “A decision has not been made by Mr. Trump. He will be making a decision in the future,†Jason Miller, a spokesman for the Republican presidential nominee, said in a message on Twitter. A spokesman for Pence did not respond to an email requesting comment, but the governor’s deputy campaign manager was spotted by reporters on a flight from Indianapolis to New York on Thursday morning.
The Pence pick, if true, would end a whirlwind two weeks in which Trump held what amounted to public auditions for who should be his running mate. Last week, the New York real estate mogul appeared with Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker — who subsequently took himself out of the running for the job. That appearance was followed by a joint rally with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Cincinnati, while New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie introduced Trump at a policy speech Monday in Virginia Beach, Va.
Pence was the last prospective candidate to appear with Trump, joining him on stage Tuesday night at a rally outside Indianapolis. The next morning, Trump met privately with Pence again in Indianapolis — this time joined by his adult children in a flurry of last-minute meetings with prospective running mates.
On Wednesday, a Republican source close to the Trump campaign said most of Trump’s senior advisers, including his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, were urging him to pick Pence, arguing that the former Republican congressman and staunch conservative could help Trump win over mainstream and base Republicans still wary of his candidacy. Manafort had privately expressed concern about whether Christie and Gingrich, two powerful personalities with their own political brands, had the ability to be disciplined team players behind Trump heading into the fall.
But critics were sure to zero in on Pence’s policy differences with Trump. The Indiana governor, who briefly entertained his own run for the presidency before endorsing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz late in the GOP primary, has publicly criticized Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States as “offensive and unconstitutional.†He is also a vocal supporter of free trade and has strongly backed the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership — two trade deals that Trump has repeatedly railed against as “total disasters†for the country.
At the same time, Pence has had a mixed record on the national stage. While polls suggest he is largely unknown to most Americans, Pence made headlines in 2015 when he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a bill that was widely criticized as allowing legal discrimination against gays and lesbians. After a national outcry, including threats from major corporations to stop doing business with Indiana, Pence signed an amended version of the bill. But the controversy soured his relationships with the business community and even many Republicans in the state, who felt Pence had gone too far. The controversial bill is widely viewed as what killed Pence’s initial 2016 presidential aspirations.
Still, the Pence pick could potentially be a boost for Trump’s campaign in Indiana, a crucial swing state, and could also help solidify his standing with evangelicals — a key bastion of voting support for Republicans that Trump desperately needs to turn out this fall.