Speculation is running behind the scenes about who will be Donald Trump's running mate as Vice President. The big surprise came from New York Times Reporter Maggie Haberman, who is not a Trump supporter. Haberman said, "She believes there’s at least some substance to the rumor that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson may be in contention to become Donald Trump’s running mate if the former president becomes the GOP’s 2024 nominee." 1
Trump and Carlson have been seen hanging out recently, and even though Tucker has no experience in government, he sure as hell knows what makes government good or bad. Remember, Donald Trump also had no experience, and look what he accomplished. Tucker is not above calling out government officials when he pulls the covers back and sees what is going on.
Haberman sees a possible conflict between Trump and Carlson because of Carlson's star power. Trump values loyalty above all else, but is he willing to share the spotlight? Tucker Carlson has a massive audience just waiting for his comeback. Being Vice President for four years might be a nice way to send a message to Rupert Murdock and even make a difference for conservatives.
Nathan L. Gonzales, a reporter for GQ Roll Call, also thinks it is time to consider running mates for Donald Trump. Gonzales thinks it may not be the best strategy to run two white guys for the top of the Republican ticket. Gonzales offers some choices that Trump should consider in no particular order.
Kristi Noem just endorsed Trump for president. She has done a great job as governor of South Dakota, and although she was criticized for banning transgender athletes from competing in women's sports, Noem remains a popular governor. 2
Noem has guided her state to prosperity by refusing to shut down schools and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses thrived, especially the oil business, and the children did not suffer from the lack of school interaction. Kristi Noem comes across as a woman of the people, not an establishment better than thou. Her commercials advertise South Dakota to newcomers to move to her state because they need good workers. Her TV commercials were on the money. Noem came off as one of us. How could you resist if you need a job?
Kari Lake lost her bid to become the next Governor of Arizona. The way I see it, the
Democrats screwed up the voting in Maricopa County. The voting machines could not print ballots due to the lack of toner in the toner cartridges. The Demos even ensured there was insufficient printer paper to print out ballots! The media gave the Registrar of Voters a pass, and Kattie Hobbs, the incumbent governor, laughed her ass off. The two-plus hour wait until the voting could begin again caused many voters to leave the line to go back to work or go home. This was a brilliant way to keep Republicans from voting.
Kari Lake is a lot like Trump. She is a fighter and will not wilt from attacks by the left.
Tim Scott is not a wild man with axes to grind. In fact, Scott is more like a mild-mannered Clark Kent. (Supeman's resident citizen). Scott worked with Trump to promote Enterprise Zones that would allow a major business to enter a neighborhood and bring other businesses into the area, making the locality thrive with new jobs and uplift the area. Scott has stepped down from his presidential bid, and I think he is a secret Trump supporter.
Nikki Haley, former Ambassador to the UN and former Governor of South Carolina, has been critical of Trump, but there is still a relationship between them. Trump has not gone after her as he has with Ron DeSantis. Haley obviously a woman with Indian heritage; she brings a lot of experience with her. This experience may be a negative since many think she is aligned with the establishment. Haley is funded by the Koch political machine and Americans For Prosperity. Both anti-Trumpers. Also, how much influence do Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer have on her?
Elise Stefanik, a Representative from upstate New York, has undergone a political transformation from a mainstream Republican who worked in the George W. Bush administration and campaigns for Tim Pawlenty and Paul Ryan before getting elected to House leadership and morphing into a prominent Trump supporter. 3 Donald Trump must know that Stefanik has stuck her neck out for him. Stefanik is a fighter.
Although she is young, 40 years old, Stefanik is a rising star in the Republican stable. She replaced Liz Cheney as the 3rd highest spot in the US House of Representatives.
Glenn Youngkin is a first-term governor of Virginia. That in itself is a miracle when you
consider that a good chunk of the voters in Virginia reside in Loudoun County, a suburb of Washington, D.C. There are lots of Swamp Dwellers there.
Younkin insists that "he is focused on common sense policies" and is not running for president. "Youngkin also discovered an issue – education and the role parents should play in it – that could well deliver Republicans the majority in the House and Senate." 4 Youngkin displayed great political acumen by refusing to vilify Trump or claiming to support him. Donald Trump does not view him as an adversary like Ron DeSantis.
Marjorie Taylor Greene for Trump's running mate. Did your heart skip a beat? MTG is actively seeking the office, and she has written a book detailing what she could do to help Donald Trump. In the old days, the vice president just presided over the Senate and voted in case of ties. The VP attended secondary events and represented the president when he was not available. Modern Presidents have come to use the office more actively. Unlike Mike Pence, Taylor Green is a wrecking ball, and Trump knows it. Typically part of the vice presidential role is to be a hatchet man for the president and to keep the president's enemies off balance. Marjorie Taylor Greene would be Hell on wheels for the Libs. Maybe too much pain, if that is permissible.
Hold on to your hat, folks. I'm not done. I have a surprise for you. Guess who had made peace with Donald Trump? Can't guess...here it is...
Megyn Kelly has made peace with Donald Trump! The former president suggested Kelly was a PMS-fueled “bimbo” in 2015 after she asked him tough questions. She now says it’s all water under the bridge. They say, "Politics makes strange bedfellows."
Once a favorite punching bag for Donald Trump, Megyn Kelly has said that she personally made amends with the former president at a conservative conference in Florida last weekend. “He and I got a one-on-one together for the first time in years, and it was, frankly, great to see him,” she claimed in a Monday segment that aired on her streaming show.
“All that nonsense between us is under the bridge,” added Kelly, a reference to the times Trump shared a tweet calling her a “bimbo” and used her menstrual cycle to attack her on national television. “He could not have been more magnanimous.”
Past damages aside, it seems that Kelly, a former Fox News star, has become a genuine admirer of Trump, praising his “aura” and “command” of the room. “It’s not just because he’s former president now, because I knew him before that. There’s just something about him,” she said. “It’s like an aura that sort of takes over the room. There’s only one person you can look at…. He could not have been nicer or more generous.” Kelly also relayed that the ex-president had commented on the upcoming debates, predicting that Trump would not attend the opening Republican primary debate hosted by Fox News next month.
Of course, it was an exchange between Trump and Kelly during the first Republican primary debate of the 2016 election cycle that pit the two against each other. Kelly, who was co-moderating that debate for Fox News, rattled off a history of Trump’s sexist comments before asking him, “Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?” During an interview on CNN the next day, Trump responded by claiming that there was “blood coming out of her wherever.”
After Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, Kelly left conservative media and joined NBC. But her stint at the network was short-lived: Following a controversy in which Kelly defended the use of blackface in Halloween costumes, NBC canceled her daytime talk show in 2018. Fast-forward to today, and Kelly is just another right-wing pundit with an internet show, regurgitating attacks on Disney’s “wokeness” and defending Tucker Carlson in his legal war with Fox News. 6
Caleb Ecarma wrote this in the liberal Vanity Fair Website on July 18, 2023. Somehow I missed this. Now that they have patched up their differences, could Megyn Kelly be Trump's pick for VP? Kelly can certainly handle the press, and she can slam you with some nasty accusations if necessary. Trump knows all about that. Would she be an effective vice president? Let's see, can she outdo Kamala Harris?
References
Moran, Lee, Maggie Haberman Dishes On 'Tucker Carlson As Vice President' For Trump Rumor, Huffpost, November 21, 2023, https://news.yahoo.com/maggie-haberman-dishes-tucker-carlson-091548002.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall
Gonzales, Nathan L., One of these five people will (probably) be Trump’s running mate, CQ Roll Call, Campaigns, September 21, 2023, https://rollcall.com/2023/09/21/one-of-these-five-people-will-probably-be-trumps-running-mate/
Ibid
Cillizza, Chris, So, who might be Donald Trump’s running mate?, The Point, CNN Politics, March 17, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/16/politics/trump-potential-running-mates-2024/index.html
Beardslee, Jake, Marjorie Taylor Greene promotes herself as Trump's potential 2024 running mate, LightWave Reports, msn.com, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-promotes-herself-as-trumps-potential-2024-running-mate/ar-AA1kG3N5
Ecarma, Caleb, Megyn Kelly Stops Worrying, Learns to Love Trump: “There’s Just Something About Him,” Vanity Fair, July 18, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/07/megyn-kelly-learns-to-love-trump
Comments