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Donald Trump Selects Mike Pence, Indiana Governor, as Running Mate How Donald Trump Finally Settled on Mike Pence
(about 5 hours later)
Donald J. Trump named Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana as his running mate on Friday, adding to the Republican ticket a traditional conservative who boasts strong credentials with the Christian right, and bringing an end to a vice-presidential selection process that seemed at risk of spinning out of control. Donald J. Trump raged at the leaked reports of his plan to choose Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, as his running mate. In public, he denied having made a “final, final decision,” and postponed a planned event to unveil his choice. In a Thursday evening phone call with top aides, he asked for reassurance that Mr. Pence was really right for the job.
Mr. Trump had said on Thursday night that he intended to delay the unveiling of his running mate out of respect for the attack in Nice, France. The moment, he said on television, was not right. In conversations late into the evening, Mr. Trump repeatedly hesitated over selecting Mr. Pence, according to people briefed on the tense deliberations, who insisted on anonymity to describe the confidential talks. Even as his emissaries reassured Mr. Pence, Mr. Trump took a last-ditch phone call from Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, another finalist, who once again pressed his own case.
On Friday, he proceeded with the announcement anyway. Advisers and family members stressed over and over to Mr. Trump that he was selecting a running mate to unite the Republican Party, not a new best friend.
Instead of a showy rollout in a Manhattan hotel, as his campaign had planned, Mr. Trump named Mr. Pence to the Republican ticket by way of Twitter. He said they would hold their first joint event on Saturday morning. But before flying back from a fund-raiser in California, Mr. Trump had settled on a plan for the morning. After having insisted that he would not make a Friday announcement out of respect for the attack in Nice, France, he would reverse course, appropriately enough, on Twitter, and name Mr. Pence as his choice.
By choosing Mr. Pence as his partner, Mr. Trump has opted to bow to political convention and also to gamble on a comparatively untested choice. Mr. Pence cuts a far more generic political profile than Mr. Trump. He is viewed as a sturdy and dependable politician by Republicans in Indiana and Washington, and chided Mr. Trump for his proposal to bar Muslims from entering the United States, calling it “offensive and unconstitutional” in a Twitter post in December. “I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate,” he wrote late Friday morning. “News conference tomorrow at 11:00 A.M.”
Before the Friday announcement, congressional leaders including the House speaker Paul D. Ryan and Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, told reporters they would approve of the choice of Mr. Pence. In Mr. Pence, the presumptive Republican nominee has found a running mate with unimpeachable conservative credentials, warm relationships in Washington and a vast reservoir of good will with the Christian right. National Republican leaders, including the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, had pronounced Mr. Pence an excellent choice in advance of Mr. Trump’s announcement.
At the same time, Mr. Pence has a record of hard-line views on cultural issues that Mr. Trump has tended to play down in the presidential race. In Mr. Pence, Mr. Trump now has a running mate who has advocated for defunding Planned Parenthood and restricting abortion rights, and who signed a so-called religious freedom law that critics said would lead to discrimination against gay men and lesbians. Mr. Pence is viewed as a sturdy and dependable politician by Republicans in Indiana and Washington, and chided Mr. Trump for his proposal to bar Muslims from entering the United States, calling it “offensive and unconstitutional” in a Twitter post in December.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign attacked Mr. Pence on Friday as “the most extreme pick in a generation,” citing his views on abortion, gay rights, immigration and the minimum wage. John Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, said Mr. Trump had reinforced “some of his most disturbing beliefs by choosing an incredibly divisive and unpopular running mate known for supporting discriminatory politics and failed economic policies.” But if selecting Mr. Pence would seem to be a concession to standard political imperatives, the move is also a gamble for Mr. Trump, who has typically valued his allies for their deep loyalty and public feistiness, rather than for the workmanlike political abilities that Mr. Pence embodies.
Both campaigns will scramble to define Mr. Pence over the next week. He is little known on the national scene, and a CBS News poll conducted before his selection found that nearly nine in 10 Americans did not have an opinion of him. Mr. Pence also has a record of hard-line views on cultural issues that Mr. Trump has tended to play down in the presidential race. Mr. Pence has advocated defunding Planned Parenthood and restricting abortion rights, and he signed a religious exceptions law that critics said would lead to discrimination against gay men and lesbians.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence, who have no personal friendship that predates the campaign, engaged in a whirlwind courtship over the last week, holding a rally together in Indiana and meeting several times in private. Mr. Pence was mobbed by reporters as he left the Intercontinental Hotel in Midtown Manhattan in the early afternoon, sporting a big smile. He pronounced himself “very humbled, very grateful” to be chosen.
But Mr. Trump agonized over his final decision. Asked what his message was to Indiana voters, Mr. Pence paused for a moment and stammered slightly. “We love Indiana, we love our country,” he said in a measured tone. “I couldn’t be more honored to have the opportunity to run with and serve with the next president of the United States.”
Late Thursday, Mr. Trump wavered over his selection of Mr. Pence, people briefed on the discussions said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe Mr. Trump’s private venting. He expressed fury to campaign aides over news media reports that his advisers were informing political allies of the Indiana governor’s selection, and bristled at the idea that he was locked into the choice. After leaving a meeting with Mr. Trump at Trump Tower later in the afternoon, Mr. Pence did not respond to questions about Mr. Trump’s reported vacillation over choosing him.
Both the Trump team and Hillary Clinton’s campaign will scramble to define Mr. Pence over the next week. He is little known on the national scene, and a CBS News poll conducted before his selection found that nearly nine in 10 Americans did not have an opinion of him.
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign attacked Mr. Pence on Friday as “the most extreme pick in a generation,” citing his views on abortion, gay rights, immigration and the minimum wage.
John D. Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, said Mr. Trump had reinforced “some of his most disturbing beliefs by choosing an incredibly divisive and unpopular running mate known for supporting discriminatory politics and failed economic policies.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence, who have no personal relationship predating the campaign, engaged in a whirlwind courtship over the last week, holding a rally together in Indiana and meeting several times in private. Mr. Trump spoke with Mr. Pence by phone on Wednesday night and signaled that he intended to choose him for vice president, a person familiar with the call said.
But Mr. Trump wrestled on Thursday with the final arrangements for a rollout. He expressed fury to campaign aides over news reports that his advisers were informing political allies of the Indiana governor’s selection, and bristled at the idea that he was locked into the choice.
In a phone call with members of the campaign leadership, Mr. Trump questioned whether Mr. Pence really was the right choice, and Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman, reiterated the case for choosing Mr. Pence, according to a person briefed on the call.In a phone call with members of the campaign leadership, Mr. Trump questioned whether Mr. Pence really was the right choice, and Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman, reiterated the case for choosing Mr. Pence, according to a person briefed on the call.
The newly forged ticket will face a grueling test in the coming days, as two very different political performers get accustomed to each other as teammates. The Trump campaign said both men will appear together at the Hilton Midtown on Saturday, and the campaign previously committed to a joint interview on “60 Minutes” on CBS. Reached by phone on Friday, Mr. Manafort said Mr. Trump had never wavered on Mr. Pence once the decision was made. Any queries about Mr. Pence as a political choice, he added, simply reflected Mr. Trump’s loose conversational style.
The chemistry between the two politicians, in the coming days, could determine just how extensively they will campaign together during the summer and fall. According to Republicans briefed on the Trump campaign’s deliberations, Mr. Pence could conceivably travel the country in large part on his own, shoring up support for Mr. Trump in conservative areas and Republican-leaning states, like North Carolina and Arizona, where Mr. Trump appears vulnerable. “Once he made the decision, nothing changed,” Mr. Manafort said. “Last night, the only issue from the time of the Nice tragedy to the time he got on a plane at around midnight was the details of how we rescheduled things.”
Within Mr. Trump’s inner circle, Mr. Pence is seen as a reliable sidekick for the presumptive Republican nominee, unlikely to cause trouble for the ticket or upstage Mr. Trump in any way. The newly forged ticket will face a grueling test in the coming days, as two very different political performers get accustomed to each other as teammates. The Trump campaign said both men would appear together at the Hilton Midtown in Manhattan on Saturday, and the campaign previously committed to a joint interview on “60 Minutes” on CBS.
Their chemistry could determine just how extensively the two will campaign together during the summer and fall. According to Republicans briefed on the Trump campaign’s deliberations, Mr. Pence could conceivably travel the country on his own, shoring up support for Mr. Trump in conservative areas and Republican-leaning states, like North Carolina and Arizona, where Mr. Trump appears vulnerable.
Within Mr. Trump’s inner circle, Mr. Pence is seen as a reliable sidekick, unlikely to cause trouble or upstage Mr. Trump in any way.
But the relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence remains a work in progress, and they could well form a closer bond over the course of the campaign.But the relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence remains a work in progress, and they could well form a closer bond over the course of the campaign.
Throughout the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump has preferred to work more or less as a solo act. Even as Mr. Pence endured as the clear favorite of Mr. Trump’s advisers, both Mr. Christie and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, lingered as alternative possibilities. Allies of Mr. Christie were convinced, as late as Friday morning, that he was still in contention.
Even on Thursday evening, with his vice-presidential announcement delayed and images of bloodshed playing across national television, Mr. Trump proceeded with his own political schedule: He addressed a fund-raising event in California and gave multiple television interviews, calling in one for a formal declaration of war by Congress against the Islamic State. When the choice was finally made, it caught at least one contender by surprise: Mr. Gingrich said in an email a few minutes before 11 a.m. that he had yet to hear directly from the Trump campaign about its decision.
Mr. Manafort, the campaign chairman, said on Fox News on Friday morning that the presumptive Republican nominee had responded emotionally to the violence in France in deciding to delay a formal event with his running mate. As the day unfolded, the campaign seemed ill prepared to trumpet the new partnership. A video released to highlight Mr. Pence was merely a 15-second clip of his Tuesday rally with Mr. Trump in Indiana. By late afternoon on Friday, the home page of Mr. Trump’s campaign website included no mention of Mr. Pence.
Yet with Mr. Pence as the favored candidate, Mr. Trump could not afford a long delay in announcing his decision. The Indiana governorship is on the ballot in November, and state law required Mr. Pence to file paperwork by noon on Friday in order to withdraw from the race and be replaced on the ballot by another Republican.
Without a public affirmation of his partnership with Mr. Trump, Mr. Pence could have been placed in an uncomfortable position — forced either to end his bid for re-election without an irreversible commitment from Mr. Trump, or to abandon his quest for the vice presidency due to an accident of scheduling.
Mr. Trump appeared to hesitate over his decision throughout the week, flying to Indiana for an extended visit with Mr. Pence, and then summoning several other potential running mates to meet with him in Indianapolis after his private aircraft broke down.
Advisers to Mr. Trump indicated to Republicans in Washington on Wednesday night that they planned to make an announcement with Mr. Pence, but on Thursday both Mr. Trump and his press officers stressed that he could still change his mind. Mr. Trump said Thursday evening on Fox that he had not made a “final, final decision.”
And when his final announcement came on Friday, Mr. Trump caught at least one other vice-presidential finalist by surprise. Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, said in an email a few minutes before 11 a.m. that he had yet to hear directly from the Trump campaign about its decision.
Even as Mr. Pence endured as the clear favorite of Mr. Trump’s advisers, both Mr. Gingrich and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey lingered as alternative possibilities — tempting options for a presidential candidate drawn more to feistiness and loyalty than to workmanlike political diligence.
Choosing Mr. Christie or Mr. Gingrich would have armed Mr. Trump with a proven political brawler on the ticket, as well as a longer-tenured personal friend as his running mate. Trump advisers argued that both men were too volatile and too risky for an already freewheeling campaign.
With his bid for national office, Mr. Pence is expected to become the first Indiana governor to pull his name from the ballot and be replaced by another candidate, who will be selected by the Indiana Republican Party.With his bid for national office, Mr. Pence is expected to become the first Indiana governor to pull his name from the ballot and be replaced by another candidate, who will be selected by the Indiana Republican Party.
His 11th-hour withdrawal from the governor’s race touched off a hectic scene in Indianapolis. After hours of anticipation at the statehouse there on Friday morning, Matt Morgan, a lawyer for Mr. Pence’s campaign for governor, wended his way through a gaggle of television cameras camped in the lobby of the Indiana secretary of state, holding the governor’s papers to withdraw from the race.His 11th-hour withdrawal from the governor’s race touched off a hectic scene in Indianapolis. After hours of anticipation at the statehouse there on Friday morning, Matt Morgan, a lawyer for Mr. Pence’s campaign for governor, wended his way through a gaggle of television cameras camped in the lobby of the Indiana secretary of state, holding the governor’s papers to withdraw from the race.
He handed the papers to Connie Lawson, the secretary of state, and they were officially stamped at 11:05 a.m.He handed the papers to Connie Lawson, the secretary of state, and they were officially stamped at 11:05 a.m.
A long list of ambitious Republicans have already signaled they may seek to swoop in and claim Mr. Pence’s spot as the party’s standard-bearer, including Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb and two members of Congress, Todd Rokita and Susan W. Brooks.
The Indiana election is likely to be competitive: Mr. Pence faced a vigorous challenge from John Gregg, a former speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, who is a Democrat.