Former President Donald J. Trump, the front-runner in the Republican presidential primary, said on Wednesday that he knew who he would choose to be his running mate.
“I can’t tell you that really,” Mr. Trump said when asked about a potential vice president at a Fox News town hall in Des Moines. “I mean, I know who it’s going to be.”
Mr. Trump would not provide details. But when pressed, he said he would be open to mending fences with his rivals in the Republican primary contest. And he joked about the distant possibility of selecting Chris Christie, an outspoken critic of Mr. Trump who suspended his presidential campaign earlier on Wednesday.
“I don’t see it,” Mr. Trump said. “That would be an upset,” he chuckled, adding, “Christie for vice president.”
Mr. Trump’s campaign advisers told reporters after the town hall that they could not offer more details on the former president’s thinking about the issue or when he made his decision.
“All I know is what I heard tonight,” said Chris LaCivita, one of Mr. Trump’s top aides. “And I’m not going to categorize it any other way than that.”
With Mr. Trump dominating the polls for months and many Republicans viewing his nomination as a foregone conclusion, there has been fervent speculation about who might join him on a ticket.
His friends and advisers have discussed the possibility of choosing a woman who might help him win back suburban women who voted for President Biden in 2020, or whether choosing a person of color might help him build on gains he made in that election with Black and Hispanic men.
This month, a number of people who have been mentioned by news media outlets as possible running mates have traveled to Iowa to campaign for Mr. Trump and publicly show their support. They include Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota; Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who held events in the state last week; and Kari Lake, a former candidate for Arizona governor who plans to hold an event in Iowa on Friday.
Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/us/politics/trump-vp-pick.html