Former President Donald Trump is down to a few finalists in his search for a vice presidential running mate for 2024. But once upon a time, most of these shortlisters opposed Trump — and weren't shy about it.
The Washington Post on Tuesday profiled just a few of the things said about him by his running mate contenders before he took office for his term.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), for instance, once said in an interview: “There is definitely an element of Donald Trump’s support that has its basis in racism or xenophobia."
The comment came during the 2016 campaign, and at one point Vance even said he sometimes feared Trump could be "America's Hitler."
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who ran against Trump unsuccessfully in the 2016 presidential primary, blasted him as a "con artist" and said: “He would be the oldest president ever elected. And it’s like an eight-year term, so you start to worry” — notable as Trump is now eight years older.
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Meanwhile, Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), who briefly challenged Trump in this year's primary, said Trump wouldn't make a very good business partner and that "it’s important that you’re judged by the company you keep.”
Trump's ideological and at times even spiritual capture of the Republican Party has been the subject of many analyses. Evangelical voters, for example, completely reversed their polling position on whether it was important for a president to be moral when Trump took over the GOP, and now some of them practically worship him.
The Trump campaign has acknowledged the about-face of these candidates, the Post noted, but has shrugged it off. Spokesperson Jason Miller compared them "to a heated moment between President Biden and Vice President Harris, when they were both vying for the Democratic nomination in 2020. In the second debate, Harris pointed out that Biden had spoken fondly of his relationships with segregationist senators and opposed aspects of mandatory busing to end school desegregation" — even though, the report noted, Harris qualified that criticism from the start by saying she didn't believe Biden was racist.
