Our coverage begins tonight with Alex Miller.
Former President Donald Trump is keeping his vice presidential pick
close to the vest as the number of days dwindle
until the deadline for him to make his choice.
And I haven't made final decision,
but I have some ideas as to
where we're going. Those in Trump world say he has
narrowed it down to three men,
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Ohio Senator JD Vance and North
Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
These men bring very different qualities to the role and
could take the campaign in very different directions.
Let's take Senator Rubio first.
I don't know who he's going to pick,
but he'll pick somebody good,
I'm sure of that. He's arguably got the biggest name
ID and would bring an establishment perspective to a ticket
that some conservatives are still concerned may read to extreme.
But he's got a history of bad blood with the
former president.
As vice chair of the Intel Committee,
he approved a report in 2020 that put out scathing
details on the Trump
campaign's relationship with Russia in 2016.
That's the same race where the two traded now infamous
blows.
Don't worry about it a little Marco,
gentlemen. And you know what they say about men with
small hands.
You can't trust them. Rubio is the only option who
would bring some diversity to the ticket as a Cuban
American,
but his address could be a thorn in his side.
A president and AVP can't be from the same state.
It's happened before with George W Bush and Dick Cheney,
who easily changed his residency to Wyoming.
It could be as simple as that,
except Rubio is still the sitting senator from Florida.
JD Vance is young, loyal to Trump and loyal to
the MAGA movement.
He'd be 39 years old at the announcement,
notable when both of the candidates are the oldest in
history.
If he asked me, I want to help him,
and of course I would be very interested in the
job.
The loyalty has been on full display the last few
years,
but at points he's been the most critical of the
former president of the three options.
If I feel like Trump has a really good chance
of winning
that I might have to hold my nose and and
vote for Hillary Clinton.
I'm a never Trump guy.
I never liked him, but I don't see him as
offering many solutions.
He later apologized for the comments and has since been
one of Trump S most vocal supporters,
even insinuating that he would have acted differently than Vice
President Mike Pence did on January 6th.
But the Iraq War veteran turned best selling author may
not appeal to independence and other swing voters after his
sharp right turn in recent years.
And finally, two term North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
If Trump wants to go for the lesser known,
less baggage pick, Burgum would be his guy.
He's never subscribed wholly to the MAGA agenda and could
learn Midwestern voters.
His tune has certainly changed in recent months.
He even showed up to Trump's hush money trial in
Manhattan,
putting him squarely on the Trump train.
We're doing this because I know that that our state
of North Dakota can't take four more years of Joe
Biden.
Burgum's self-made growing and eventually purchasing a fortune ranked software
company.
He later worked as an executive for Microsoft and Co
founded a venture capital firm.
But Burgum has also been critical of Trump.
After all, he primaried him earlier this.
I just think that it's it's important that you're judged
by the company you keep.
And I just wouldn't do business with him.
No, I wouldn't. For Trump,
the clock is ticking. He said Monday he may be
waiting to see if things shake up on the other
ticket.
Alex Miller, Scripps News, New York.