President Trump has not formally announced he’ll run for the office again in 2024 yet, although he has hinted broadly many times, promising his supporters they’ll be happy with his decision.
So who would be his running mate, if, in fact, he’s on the campaign trail?
According to a report in Just the News, Trump himself recently said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would be good.
But probably not his first term vice president, Mike Pence.
“I think Ron [DeSantis] would be good. I think Mike [Pence] has been very hurt by what took place with respect to January 6. I think he’s been mortally wounded, frankly,” Trump said.
His comments came as he was on the first night of a “History Tour” with former Fox News host and commentator Bill O’Reilly.
The “Limited Engagement National Tour” has been touted as a way for Trump to discuss the history of his administration in a series of live conversations, Just the News reported.
But Trump noted there were a number of other strong candidates, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. And he noted there were women who were qualified as well.
The report noted in Florida, DeSantis’ job approval is at 56%, and the governor previously has dismissed speculation about his role on a GOP ticket. Just last month he filed to seek reelection in Florida.
The controversy over Pence involves his decision to lead the Senate in its adoption of the 2020 presidential race results from the Electoral College without any challenge or protest.
There were, of course, many questions about the accuracy of those results, which gave Joe Biden the White House. Many issues still are being reviewed.
But what is known is that Mark Zuckerberg of Meta handed out $420 million to local activists mostly with instructions to recruit voters from Democrat areas, both legacy and online media suppressed accurate – and negative – reporting about the Biden family affairs just before the election, and various state officials, without permission, changed state laws regarding the ballots for the election.
Independent studies have revealed that either the money from Zuckerberg or the suppression of reports about Biden impacted the results enough to cost Trump the election.
Pence was lobbied to reject the Electoral College votes from several states until various investigations could have been completed. Had those rejections been enough to deprive Biden of the required 270 votes, the election would have been thrown into the House of Representatives, which at that time was GOP majority.
There were conflicting opinions on Pence’s ability to do that, with the pro-Biden agenda declaring the Senate was forced to accept the state results. The other side, citing statements from the Founding Fathers, charged that an unconstitutionally appointed elector was no elector at all.
The Hill reported Trump said, of Pence, “I was disappointed in one thing, but it was a big thing.”
“Mike should have sent those crooked votes back to the legislatures and you would have had a different result in the election, in my opinion,” he said.