Trump narrows vice presidential field, with Burgum and Rubio out
Donald Trump narrowed the field of possible vice presidential picks on Monday when two leading contenders were told they would not get the job, according to sources speaking on condition of anonymity.
Trump was expected to reveal his running mate shortly, as the 2024 Republican National Convention got under way two days after he survived an assassination attempt.
Sources said North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio were told they were not selected.
That left U.S. Senator J.D. Vance as a leading candidate, though Trump could go with a surprise pick whose name has not been circulated on a short list of contenders.
Republicans will nominate the candidate around 4:30 p.m. ET (2030 GMT).
Earlier in the day, Trump was handed a major legal victory when a federal judge dismissed one of his criminal prosecutions.
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that the prosecutor who charged Trump with mishandling classified documents was unlawfully appointed to his role.
Trump is due to formally accept the party’s nomination on Thursday to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, are locked in what opinion polls show to be a tight election rematch. Trump continues to falsely claim that his 2020 loss to Biden was the result of widespread fraud and has not committed to accepting the results of the election were he to lose.
In the wake of the assassination attempt, Trump said he is revising his acceptance speech to emphasize national unity, rather than highlight his differences with Biden.
“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” Trump told the Washington Examiner. The would-be assassin’s bullet clipped Trump’s right ear but did no major harm.
Trump said that following the judge’s decision dismissing the documents case, his other outstanding prosecutions should also be thrown out. He is still awaiting trial on two cases – a federal prosecution in Washington and a Georgia state prosecution – for his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Both of those cases could be hamstrung by a July 1 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that he has immunity for many actions he took as president.
Trump is due to be sentenced in New York in September for trying to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before his 2016 election victory.
“This dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts,” Trump said on his Truth Social site on Monday, also referencing the prosecutions of hundreds of his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
NO PLACE FOR VIOLENCE
Biden has tried to bring the temperature down after months of heated political rhetoric.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized,” Biden said of the assassination attempt in a televised address from the White House on Sunday.
The shooting on Saturday whipsawed discussion around the presidential campaign, which had been focused on whether Biden should drop out due to concerns about his age and acuity following a halting June 27 debate performance.
Nearly two dozen of Biden’s fellow Democrats in Congress have called on him to end his reelection bid and allow the party to pick another standard bearer.
The focus this week will be squarely on Trump.
Having consolidated party control, Trump could seize on the prime-time opportunity to deliver a unifying message or paint a dark portrait of a nation under siege by a corrupt leftist elite, as he has done at times on the campaign trail.
Trump has frequently turned to violent rhetoric in campaign speeches, labeling his perceived enemies as “vermin” and “fascists,” and accusing Biden without evidence of a conspiracy to undermine the United States by encouraging illegal immigration.
Biden has often warned that a Trump victory would erode U.S. democracy. Some Republicans say those comments helped create the conditions for the shooting.
Investigators say they have been unable to identify an ideology that may have inspired 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to shoot at Trump from a rooftop outside a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania. Though Trump escaped serious injury, a supporter was killed.
Biden ordered an independent review of how the gunman, who was shot dead by agents, could have come so close to killing Trump. Congressional investigators were also due to question the head of the U.S. Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the former president.
Republicans attending the party’s convention said they were not inclined to reassess the party’s traditional opposition to firearms restrictions.
“If someone runs someone over with a car, they don’t ban cars,” said Melanie Collette, a delegate from New Jersey. “If someone stabs somebody, they don’t ban knives.”