Trump’s vice presidential search enters new phase: Politico Desk

Welcome to the online edition From the Political Deskis an evening newsletter bringing you the latest coverage and analysis from the election campaign, the White House and Congress from the NBC News political team.

In today’s edition, we report on Donald Trump’s accelerated process for selecting a vice president. Plus, chief political analyst Chuck Todd questions whether Trump’s conviction would carry more weight if President Joe Biden were more popular.

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Trump’s vice presidential search enters new phase

Henry J. Gomez, Matt Dixon, Jonathan Allen, Dasha Barnes

As former President Donald Trump awaits sentencing on felony charges and prepares for next month’s Republican National Convention, the search for a vice presidential nominee is in full swing.

The vice presidential candidates recently received vetting materials, five sources familiar with the vetting process told NBC News.

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According to one source, Trump’s nominee search is heavily focused on four front-runners:

• North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum
• Florida Senator Marco Rubio
• South Carolina Senator Tim Scott
• Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio

Another source said it will be a three-way battle between Burgum, Rubio and Vance.

But it’s unclear who has been asked to provide details about the vetting that could lead to a nominee being selected. Burgum, who has been spending more time with Trump in recent weeks, is among those who received the request, a source familiar with the request said. Advisers to Burgum and other vice presidential candidates either declined or did not respond to requests for comment this week.

People familiar with the search cautioned that Trump is assembling a fluid list of candidates that at times can include more than six names, and that candidates could still be added, removed or dark horse candidates could emerge.

As the Republican front-runner faces trial on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments to adult film performers, Trump and his aides have been closely monitoring the investigation, which until recently had been relatively quiet.

Trump said in the interview that a decision on his running mate would be made closer to the party’s convention, which begins in Milwaukee on July 15. In 2016, he announced Mike Pence as his running mate just days before that year’s nominating convention in Cleveland.

Read more about the Vice Presidential election →

Poll fog hangs over 2024 election campaign

Chuck Todd

After the former president and near-presumptive Republican presidential nominee was convicted of a historic felony, the entire political world is trying to figure out what it means now, and what it will mean in November.

Immoral and unethical behavior once sounded a political death knell. But as Big Tech and social media algorithmically accelerate our tribal instincts, it has become easier than ever for anyone to feel victimized by segments of the population, guilty or innocent. Red and blue tribes today have an uncanny ability to distinguish between bad behavior from those on their side while condemning those who share similar or even worse characteristics.

To me, the real question of whether the ruling will have an impact on voters is in the hands of both presidential campaigns: To what extent will the ruling come to the forefront rather than just setting the tone?

The question I keep asking myself is: Would this ruling mean more to voters if President Joe Biden’s approval rating were higher?

It’s a hypothesis that cannot be tested at this point, but I can’t help but wonder if some voters are ignoring Trump’s moral and ethical failings simply because they believe Biden is unfit to hold office. Of course, if Biden had better political positions, the Republican Party might have gone in a different direction in the primaries.

The point is that I believe politics is a zero-sum game, that this is a binary choice, and that the public has to choose the flawed person. This goes back to your question about the two kinds of undecided voters in this election: aspirational voters and transactional voters. Aspirational voters vote for what is in the best interest of the country, and transactional voters vote for what is in their own best interest. I don’t know if there are still many aspirational voters left among the undecided electorate, but I think there are quite a few transactional voters left.

So far, the limited polling I’ve seen (including private campaign polls) suggests that the ruling over the past week has barely changed the numbers. Of course, even “almost” can be decisive in a close election, so I wouldn’t discount the idea that a 1-2 point change would be OK.

Continue reading Chuck →

That’s all from the Politics Desk. If you have any comments, please email us here. politicsnewsletters@nbcuni.com

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