Trump team asks for paperwork for three possible VP candidates...

 

From left to right. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Ohio Senator JD Vance and Florida Senator Marco Rubio. ABC News/Reuters/Getty.

The Trump campaign has asked for vetting paperwork for three possible VP candidates. ABC News. The three men include North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Ohio Senator JD Vance and Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Other candidates will be considered as well but the three men are apparently the top candidates. Other names floated include Senator Tim Scott, Representatives Byron Donalds and Elise Stephanik and former Trump cabinet member Dr. Ben Carson. All three of the main candidates have been defending Trump on the cable news channels while Burgum and Vance showed up at the trial in New York. Rubio has even considered moving from Florida so he would be eligible due to constitutional issues of having a VP and Presidential candidates from the same state. Trump recently praised all three men but was slightly critical of Senator Tim Scott. 

My Comment:

Trump's pick for VP is obviously very important. With Trump being in his late seventies it would behoove him to pick a credible VP in case something were to happen to him. He doesn't want a liability like Biden has with Kamala Harris. But he also needs assassination insurance, someone who is even less acceptable than he is to the powers that be. Mike Pence served as that during his first term, but Pence ended up betraying Trump. Are any of these three men a good fit?

I have to say that I have very little information as to Dug Burgum. I know he is a governor of a red state and that he has been very supportive of Trump. But he's mostly unknown to me and I get the feeling that most other people don't really know him as well. He's not my first pick but I also don't rule him out because I know nothing about him.

I am impressed with JD Vance though. I read his book, Hillbilly Elegy and he's a man that has been in both worlds. He came up as a lower class white guy in a flyover state, so he understands the plight of the working man, but he also went to Yale law school, so he knows the world of the upper class as well. The only knock I have against him is that he didn't vote for Trump in 2016, but other than that I have a deep respect for Vance. 

Marco Rubio is more of a wild card for me. Rubio was a Trump opponent in 2016 so I don't fully trust him. He's also a product of the system with all the advantages and disadvantages of that includes. Rubio would do a lot to reassure the powers that be in terms of supporting a 2nd Trump term, but I also worry they would much rather see Rubio as President than Trump. And I also don't trust Rubio to back Trump in a situation like the 2020 election. 

It is somewhat surprising that Tim Scott or Dr. Ben Carson aren't front runners. For all the progress Trump is making with black Americans you would think that he would want a black VP candidate to shore that up even further. Of course I am not a huge fan of Tim Scott, he would certainly not be my first choice, but I do really like Carson, he would be an excellent and loyal VP and is someone that almost everyone respects, including in the black community. 

What is a little strange to me is that Trump hasn't picked anyone from a swing state. To be fair he didn't during 2016 and it didn't hurt him, but you would think he would pick someone from a major swing state to try and get a few more votes for him. North Dakota, Ohio and Florida are about as red as states get and Trump does not need help in those states at all. 

Nobody outside of Trump knows who he is going to pick but I think that the pick will tell us what he is most worried about. If he picks Rubio or Burgum I am guessing he is more worried about GOP defectors than anything else. If he picks Scott or Carson he's going for the black vote. If he somehow picks Elise Stephanik he's trying to peel off a few women. And if he picks JD Vance he's convinced he's going to win regardless and doesn't think he needs help. 

As for me I want JD Vance or Ben Carson. They are the ones I agree with the most politically and the ones I trust to do the right thing if it ever comes up. Rubio, Scott and Carson are probably the ones that would help him the most but Scott and Carson don't seem to be in the race. To be honest though, none of these men are deal-breakers and I'm going to vote for Trump whoever he picks as VP.