Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, introduces Gov. Mike Pence, R-Ind., during a campaign event to announce Pence as the vice presidential running mate on, Saturday, July 16, 2016, in NY.
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“We’re different people, I understand that”, Trump said in a preview of a “60 Minutes” interview that the pair did together.
“By picking Mike Pence as his running mate, Donald Trump has doubled down on some of his most disturbing beliefs by choosing an incredibly divisive and unpopular running mate known for supporting discriminatory politics and failed economic policies that favour millionaires and corporations over working families”, said Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta.
“He won’t [call Clinton that name], I didn’t ask him to do it but I don’t think he should do it because its different for him”, Trump said in the clip.
Trump, 70, chose Pence, 57, over two politicians he considers friends and close advisers, former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, 73, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, 53.
“I am very supportive of Donald Trump’s call to temporarily suspend immigration from countries where terrorist influence and impact represents a threat to the United States”, Pence told conservative Fox News commentator Sean Hannity.
US presidential hopeful Donald Trump on Saturday presented his vice presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, as the man who can unify a fractured Republican party and help him bridge the gap created by the candidate’s outsider status.
Trump touted Indiana’s falling unemployment rate and said that Pence would help his campaign and his potential administration protect the freedom of speech of religious institutions.
Trump and Pence will appear together Saturday morning at a midtown Manhattan hotel, an unofficial kickoff event to the Republican National Convention two days before it opens in Cleveland.
The joint appearance was meant to catapult the party toward a successful and unified Republican National Convention, which kicks off in Cleveland on Monday.
There were no newly printed banners or logos at the hotel ballroom event, which was set in a state that Trump has little chance of winning in November. And when they shook hands, with the political world watching, it was only for a few seconds before Trump left the podium.
Brandishing his running mate’s job-creating credentials, Trump – who pushed back against reports of indecision by deeming the governor “my first choice” – ticked through a list of statistics he said showed how Pence had pulled IN out of economic recession: an unemployment rate that fell to less than 5 percent on his watch, an uptick IN the labor force and a decrease IN IN residents on unemployment insurance. He predicted that Pence would have won re-election as governor, were he not running for vice-president.
Just as Trump was settling on Pence, Republicans gathering in Cleveland essentially quelled the effort to stop him at the convention, all but assuring he’ll be the GOP nominee. Before it started, supporters listened to the Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, a tune in regular rotation at Trump events. Then, Obama pulled back, saying he first wanted to get approval from Congress. But his hard line ideology is sometimes at odds with Trump. After days of his aides saying he hadn’t made a final decision, the billionaire called Pence Thursday afternoon to offer him the job, but hours later postponed their first appearance after a truck attack killed 84 people in Nice, France.
Clinton’s team was already painting Pence’s conservative social viewpoints as out of step with the mainstream. That fueled speculation that Trump might be changing his mind. There were no “Trump-Pence” signs in the room, which appeared dark and somewhat subdued on television.
Moments later, one of Pence’s aides filed paperwork withdrawing him from the governor’s race about an hour before a noon deadline. He’s been critical of Trump’s proposed temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the USA, calling the idea “offensive and unconstitutional”. The governor has been a longtime advocate of trade deals such as NAFTA and the Trans Pacific Partnership, both of which Trump aggressively opposes. He also endorsed Sen.
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The underwhelming rollout continued when Pence got back to IN, where a few hundred people greeted him at a suburban Indianapolis airport hangar bereft of any “Trump-Pence” signs or other obvious trappings of a presidential campaign.
