Donald TrumpThe timeline for announcing his vice presidential running mate has stalled after a rocky debate last week by the president Joe Bidensources familiar with the deliberations told NBC News.
The former president wavered between whether to make a hasty announcement last week to distract Biden ahead of the first debate in Atlanta, or to quickly change the narrative if the debate had gone poorly for Trump.
But it was Biden who had a bad night, raising alarms among Democrats with his hoarse, halting delivery, his flabby facial expressions and his occasionally absent-minded train of thought. The political news cycle that followed — and was still ongoing Monday with speculation about the sustainability of Biden’s candidacy — is not one that Trump is eager to quickly revive by introducing his running mate.
“What’s the old saying? Never stand in the way of your enemy while they’re destroying themselves,” said one Republican familiar with the discussions. “I think that applies here. It’s been Biden’s week for all the wrong reasons; let them have it.”
Trump has said he knows who his running mate will be, while sources close to the process continue to talk about a search that will focus on three finalists: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio.
The window for a decision and an announcement is narrowing. Trump has publicly expressed a preference for unveiling his pick closer to, or during, the Republican National Convention, which begins July 15 in Milwaukee. Earlier, high-level discussions about the rollout had focused on the days surrounding his sentencing next week, July 11, on 34 felony counts of falsifying corporate records.
It’s unclear whether an announcement this week is out of the question — given Trump’s penchant for theatrics, a surprise revelation could come at any moment. But a prominent Republican fundraiser said there’s little point for Trump to make an announcement ahead of sentencing at this point. Beyond the fallout from the Biden debate, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that Trump has immunity for some of his conduct as president in its federal election interference case.
“If the debate went badly, I think we would know,” the fundraiser said. “But with all the unrest going on … I don’t know why he would do it in the middle of all this.”
A veteran GOP official familiar with the rollout talks agreed.
“There’s so much up in the air that there’s no reason to move quickly after what happened in Atlanta,” the agent said. “Someone else could be nominated by the Democrats — how could that potentially change things? Waiting until now is the most logical thing in the world.”
Trump’s closest aides have provided little clarity on the process and timeline, though senior adviser Chris LaCivita acknowledged on social media last week that the announcement could come any time between that date and the convention.
“As President Trump himself has said, the single most important criterion in selecting a vice president is a strong leader who will be a great president for eight years after his next four-year term ends,” Trump’s senior adviser Brian Hughes said in a written statement provided for this article — and nearly every other report written in recent weeks about the search for a running mate. “But anyone who tells you they know who or when President Trump will pick his vice president is lying, unless that person’s name is Donald J. Trump.”
A former senior adviser who still has close ties to Trump and has spoken to him about the search felt comfortable making a more decisive comment.
“If Biden hadn’t blown that debate,” the former adviser said, “we would know by now who Trump’s pick for vice president was.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
