MILWAUKEE (AP) — Defiant Donald TrumpJust survived Assassination attemptgoes into the Republican National Convention without yet announcing his running mate but said he will make that choice on Monday.
What is unclear is, shooting At a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, the former president changed his mind about who his next presidential candidate will be. He told Fox News Channel host Bret Baier on a call that he plans to decide on his choice on Monday.
Trump’s choice took on even greater significance after the shooting: If the bullet had hit him just a little to the right, he would likely have been killed or seriously injured.
The narrow margin of victory underscores the importance of the upcoming presidency: Trump has repeatedly said that choosing someone qualified to take over as commander in chief is his top priority in taking the role.
“You need someone who can be good and who can be terrible, just in case,” he said during an interview on “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” in May.
“It’s a very important position, especially if something bad happens, it’s of the utmost importance,” he told Fox News Channel’s Harris Faulkner in an interview before boarding a flight from Florida just hours before the shooting.
The people on Trump’s shortlist have different levels of political experience: Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio has been in office for less than two years, while Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota leads a state (780,000) with a smaller population than Columbus, Ohio (908,000). Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has been in politics for decades and is in his third term as a senator.
He spoke about “The Apprentice,” but for the vice president
What you need to know about the 2024 election
Before the shooting, Trump said: TournamentThat would make it more “interesting” and “exciting,” he said.
“It’s like a highly sophisticated version of ‘The Apprentice,'” he joked in a radio interview last week, referring to the show he once hosted in which he shot contestants in front of a camera.
President Trump and the tournament organizers said: RNC Schedule Despite the shooting, the convention will go ahead as scheduled, with President Trump writing on his social media sites that he “cannot allow a ‘gunman’ or potential assassin to force any changes to the schedule or otherwise.”
“At this moment, it is more important than ever that we come together, show our true character as Americans, remain strong and resolute, and do not let evil win,” he wrote.
He met with the top candidates days before the shooting, and all of them have submitted bios, photos and other materials to convention organizers to use in preparing their campaigns if selected, according to people familiar with the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secretive process.
The private meeting between Vance, Rubio and Burgum was first reported by ABC News.
One of the people said nothing was proposed during the meeting.
There is historical precedent for waiting until the Games
While Trump is waiting until the convention to choose his running mate, it is by no means unprecedented, even though it is later than usual in recent elections.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan negotiated for hours with former President Gerald Ford at the Republican Convention in Detroit, but when talks broke down he settled for his old primary rival, George H. W. Bush. Reagan made the last-minute decision, making it less than 24 hours before he was due to formally accept the Republican nomination.
President Bush himself waited until the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans to shock many in attendance, and some of the then-VP’s own top advisers, by choosing little-known Indiana Senator Dan Quayle as his No. 2 rather than a more established running mate.
However, since then, it has become tradition to choose a running mate just before the candidate’s party convention.
In 2008, Arizona Sen. John McCain, looking for a way to reset his race against Democratic candidate Barack Obama, picked little-known Alaska governor Sarah Palin just before the Republican convention in Minnesota. Her poll numbers soared, but it didn’t last.
Democrat Joe Biden picked then-California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate six days before the party’s convention, which was held mostly online because of the coronavirus pandemic, and Trump picked Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate just days before the 2016 Republican National Convention got underway in Cleveland.
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Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Will Weisert contributed to this report from Washington.
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