Regretful Trump tried to back out of Pence pick during midnight phone call to aides: report

Buyer's Remorse?

CNN’s Dana Bash reported Friday that GOP candidate Donald Trump was uncertain about his selection for vice presidential running mate — so much so that he asked his aides at midnight whether there was any way to avoid it.

Trump took the unprecedented step ofsuddenly announcing that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence would be his running mate on Twitter — with what seemed like little forewarning to his campaign team. The announcement came after Trump had promised to make it over the weekend, out of respect for victims of the truck attack in Nice, France on Thursday night.

Trump's campaign is calling the story false but, other journalists are reporting their sources are confirming these conversations too.

The deadline to withdraw as Indiana's Governor candidate was noon today. Pence withdrew and three other Republicans have filed now.

I don't understand this choice long-term other than access to Koch and Evangelical money. Short-term, picking Pence deflated an attempt by anti Trump delegates to take over the VP nomination during the Convention. Long-term, Pence is bringing major problems with women voters, a problem Trump already had. See the Periods for Pence Facebook page where women have reported in on their "cycles" in detail by calling Gov. Pence's office, repeatedly. For months. The new directive is to report into the Trump campaign now on all manner of monthly menses. Legislation that has attacked a woman's right to choose was the start.

Periods for Pence

And that doesn't even get into Pence's discrimination against the LGBT community that garnered huge negative headlines, the loss of conventions in the state and the extreme ire of the business community.

No wonder he was making calls. Pence's re-election was in serious, serious trouble. Now he gets to run with Trump.

What say you ATS? Are these reports legit? Did Trump want to tell Pence, "You're Fired?"

Crazy times...

Most anti-climactic VP announcement ever?

Source

a reply to: DancedWithWolves

We are in big big trouble.

It must be nice to have so much free time to call and report you bodily function to a politician.

The only way I could find the time, is either get paid for it or if I didn't have a job

Could not have done a worse job selecting a vp. A lame neocon establishment crony that is a social conservative and not liked by women, or anyone that isnt a religious nut. Just my opinion, but seems like shooting himself in the foot. And now wavering looks bad too. It was all poorly handled, which does not look good for a presidential candidate either.

a reply to: pirhanna

Shot himself in the foot for sure, but the thing is is that he still seems to have feet to shoot. How many times has he seemed to shoot himself in the foot before, a dozen or so? What is he a centipede?

Poor Chris Christie...

I call Hillary's campaign team every time I take a bowel movement.

I guess I'll start giving Trump the same courtesy.

Poor Chris Christie...

a reply to: MystikMushroom


I've never seen such a huge brown noser like Christie. He wanted to be Trump's VP so bad he followed him around like a puppy dog.

originally posted by: WeRpeons

Poor Chris Christie...

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I've never seen such a huge brown noser like Christie. He wanted to be Trump's VP so bad he followed him around like a puppy dog.

His body language was pitiful recently. He had the eyes of someone who hates himself. Apparently Trump's cold feet were down to wanting Christie as his gut pick but being told that Pence was the smarter option?

a reply to: DancedWithWolves

Trump has proved time and time again he's notorious for going back on his word. Hillary's not truthful and he complains about her lies, but he's shown himself throughout his campaign regurgitating something he said just days before!! You never know when this guy is going to back track on anything he says. Inconsistency is what I want in a president, NOT!

originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: DancedWithWolves

Trump has proved time and time again he's notorious for going back on his word. Hillary's not truthful and he complains about her lies, but he's shown himself throughout his campaign regurgitating something he said just days before!! You never know when this guy is going to back track on anything he says. Inconsistency is what I want in a president, NOT!

It's the boastful bloviating that gets me. He seems to think that if he says something it must be true. I'm wondering what his aides are telling him. Are they brown-nosers like Christie?

a reply to: DancedWithWolves

Yeah, I was channel surfing yesterday and saw a Breaking News banner that Trump said. "I haven't made my final, final decision"... And this is after he cancelled his planned announcement of Pence... So, did he actually announce that Pence is the official pick?

I read that Trump wanted Gingrich, but said he'd be too hard to control... Here it is.

Trump is described as torn because he felt former House speaker Newt Gingrich would be "too volatile" to manage.
...

If he wanted someone easy to manage, he should have taken Christie... But I guess Ivanka's husband didn't want Christie.

Despite a close, long-term friendship with the governor, sources said Trump told others he could not "betray" his family and cause stress for his daughter Ivanka.

I thought it was strange that the final interviews for VP were given by Trump's children...

Trump has dreams of an Empire or Family Aristocracy. I'm kind of surprised he didn't pick his son for VP.

Trump Wavered on Pence Pick

We're in for a hell of a ride, folks!

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

He announced it here. And then reportedly asked if it was too late to change his mind. They even have a logo all set and everything. He did, on Twitter also say he was delaying the announcement due to events in Nice.

I think we are going to see quite a few VP picks before November.

At least one or two a month would seem likely.

Until finally he settles on his son, daughter, wife or a cardboard cutout wearing a Trump tie.

originally posted by: AngryCymraeg
Apparently Trump's cold feet were down to wanting Christie as his gut pick but being told that Pence was the smarter option?

I bet Bill Clinton told him that.

It sounds like he knows, we know, you know?



A little history on why Indiana is celebrating his departure.

Pence vowed when he took office to focus on jobs and education, though he also campaigned on a description of himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican — in that order.”

He was soon pulled into divisive social issues.

Pence backed tougher abortion measures; opposed efforts to undo a state ban on same-sex marriage; and was slow to allow public health officials to implement a needle-exchange program when an HIV epidemic erupted among drug users in a rural Indiana county.

Tension at the Statehouse reached a boiling point last year, when Pence signed a religious freedom bill that critics said would allow businesses to deny services to gays and lesbians.

The legislation set off a storm of criticism that forced Pence to sign a follow-up bill clarifying the law’s intent — much to the dismay of his evangelical supporters who'd backed the original measure.

That came just as Pence was contemplating his own run for president — an ambition cut short, in part, when he stumbled through a difficult, nationally broadcast interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

Not long after, just as Pence was getting ready to announce his re-election bid for governor, a poll conducted by Republican Christine Matthews of Bellwether Research found that 54 percent of Indiana voters said they wanted a new governor.

Less than one-third said they’d re-elect Pence.

Source

a reply to: DancedWithWolves
I wonder how many decisions he would want to back track if Elected.

a reply to: DancedWithWolves

IMVHO ... all you've mentioned ... that's why Pence is a suitable candidate for Trump's VP.

The VP doesn't do much of anything anyway. However, it'll satisfy the blood-lust of a very large number of Americans who are too dumb to realize Pence doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the big picture.

Had Trump gone with someone like Palin ... I'd have felt reassured in my position that Trump's not really trying to be elected at all.

I think you are pushing an important part of your post under the rug:

originally posted by: DancedWithWolves
Trump's campaign is calling the story false

There have been so many rumors swirling around this campaign, that there is no way that you can know that this was not just another rumor.

If you watched the Trump and Pence press conference today, you can see that Trump used common sense, and his own reasons, to select Pence.

a reply to: BlueAjah

And more than one source is confirming the conversations.

This decision illustrates how much Trump and his advisors don't know about governing or campaigns. Pence only makes sense in terms of his policy stances being just like Ted Cruz (who Pence endorsed over Trump in Indiana's primary) and calmed the war drums at the convention. Long-term Pence's well-documented radical right wing stances will hurt Trump and amplify Trump's own radical thoughts, like criminally punishing women who exercised their right to choose.

And before that whole debate erupts, let me add, no one likes abortions, but why is it we can send penis-shaped rockets to the moon but scientifically we haven't been able to make a woman's choice "when" not "if"?

Donald Trump's complete lack of experience in government is going to produce endless uninformed decisions that he, and we, will come to deeply regret.

And no I'm not a Hillary band-waggoner, but Trump is so dangerous because he doesn't know what he doesn't know.