When Donald Trump revealed his vice presidential running mate Mike Pence this week, he also revealed a new logo, with the internet quickly asking what exactly Mr Trump’s “T” was doing to Mr Pence’s “P”.
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Trump “has the ideal partner: Mike Pence, who’s been on a years-long crusade against women’s health care and access to abortion in this country”, said Dawn Laguens, head of Planned Parenthood Votes.
However, the two differ on a range of issues crucial to Trump’s candidacy.
“One of the big reasons that I chose Mike, and one of the reasons is party unity, I have to be honest”, Trump said in his typically off-the-cuff speaking style at the event in Midtown Manhattan.
Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort says the goal is to feature ordinary people impacted by the current president’s policies.
“I think it helps but I don’t think I needed him, no, because I won with evangelicals”, Trump said. Trump handed over the microphone to Pence, patted him and walked off the stage and out of sight.
Priebus called Trump’s selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate a “mature pick”. He promised that he and Trump-whose shifting positions and departures from party orthodoxy have alarmed and mystified many Republicans-would govern as a traditional conservative while also hailing him as an anti-establishment figure.
“I said campaigns oughta be about something more important than just one candidate’s election”, Pence said. “Both said the law had been misrepresented and needed to be changed because of the perception that it could be used to discriminate against the LGBT community”.
But even as Pence said the men have plenty in common and Trump insisted they have “very, very good chemistry”, some political observers said their interaction appeared forced.
Stahl tried to interject, but Trump continued to talk.
He called Pence “a highly talented executive” and the first choice for running mate.
Pence, standing alone in front of ten American flags, hewed closely to the populist themes that Trump has voiced on the campaign trail, describing himself as “really just a small-town boy”. Trump painted his rosy picture of Pence, then pivoted from praising Indiana’s infrastructure to touting his plans to build a U.S.-Mexico wall and his Washington, D.C. hotel project.
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Priebus tells CNN “there is no religious test on the table”, despite Trump’s statement in December calling for a temporary ban of foreign Muslims from entering the USA until elected leaders could figure out “what is going on”. “I said that they are going to break away”, he said.
