Donald Trump’s timeline for announcing his vice presidential running mate was disrupted following a shaky debate performance last week from President Joe Biden, sources familiar with the deliberations told NBC News.
The former president debated whether to make a hasty announcement last week to distract Biden before the first debate in Atlanta or quickly change the narrative if the debate had gone badly for Trump.
But it was Biden who had a bad night, raising alarms among Democrats with his hoarse, halting speech, his slack-jawed facial expressions and his occasionally absent train of thought. The political news cycle that followed — and which continued on Monday with speculation about the sustainability of Biden’s candidacy — is not something that Trump is eager to eliminate immediately by introducing his running mate.
“What’s the old saying? Never stand in your enemy’s way while he is destroying himself,” said one Republican familiar with the discussions. “I think that applies here. It was Biden 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 describe a search focused on three finalists: Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.
The window for a decision and an announcement is narrowing. Trump has publicly expressed his preference for revealing his choice closer to or during the Republican National Convention, which begins July 15 in Milwaukee. Previous high-level discussions about implementation have focused on the days surrounding his sentencing next week, July 11, on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
It’s unclear whether an announcement this week is out of the question — given Trump’s love of theatrics, a surprise reveal could happen at any time. But a prominent Republican fundraiser said at this point it makes little sense for Trump to announce before the sentencing. In addition to the fallout from the Biden debate, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Trump has immunity from his conduct as president in his federal election interference case.
“If the debate went badly, of course, I think we would know,” the fundraiser said. “But with so much turmoil going on… I don’t know why he would do that in the middle of all this.”
A veteran GOP operative familiar with implementation discussions agreed.
“There is so much up in the air that there is no reason for them to act quickly after what happened in Atlanta,” the agent said. “There could be someone else nominated by the Democrats – how does that potentially change things? Waiting for now makes all the sense in the world.”
Trump’s closest aides have offered little clear reading on the process and timeline, though senior adviser Chris LaCivita recognized on social media last week that the announcement could come any time between then and the convention.
“As President Trump himself has said, the main criteria in selecting a vice president is a strong leader who will be a great president for eight years after the end of his next four-year term,” said Trump senior adviser Brian Hughes, in a written statement offered. for this article – and almost every other report written about the running mate search in recent weeks. “But anyone who says they know who or when President Trump will choose his vice president is lying, unless that person is named Donald J. Trump.”
A former senior adviser who remains close to Trump and discussed the search with him felt comfortable making a more decisive point.
“If Biden hadn’t bombed this debate,” said the former adviser, “we would already know who Trump’s choice for vice president was.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
