Donald Trump strolled onto the stage for his first joint appearance with his running mate — solo.
“I found the leader who will deliver a safe society and a prosperous society for all Americans. Mike Pence was my first choice,” Trump said Saturday, a reference to reports that he had last-minute qualms over his selection. “He is a solid, solid person.” After a brief summation of Pence — “I admire the fact that he fights for people, and he’ll fight for you” — Trump pivoted to an attack on presumptive Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Among other things he said Clinton “got away with murder” in escaping prosecution for her treatment of emails as secretary of state.
Saturday’s event was supposed to happen at the same venue 24 hours earlier. Trump postponed it following the attack Thursday in Nice, France. After multiple media reports that Pence was his final choice and facing a deadline for Pence to withdraw from the Indiana governor’s race, Trump’s big reveal came via a mid-morning tweet Friday.
The scene for the televised event, two days before the Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland, was a New York Hilton Midtown ballroom with floor-to-ceiling drapery, multiple U.S. flags and little other decoration other than the usual “Trump” placard on the front of the podium. The 250 seats were filled with invited guests, including members of the Manhattan Republican Club, Trump’s golf courses, and one surprised vacationing Nebraska family invited to sit in while milling in the lobby.
Not in the house on Saturday: Trump’s other two finalists-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who had argued in favor of a “two-pirate” ticket.
The buttoned-down Pence, 57, was the nonpirate choice, the stylistic opposite of Trump. The polished, silver-haired conservative is adept at speaking many words without saying much of anything — a studied contrast to Trump’s penchant for off-message outbursts.
Once Pence joined the ticket, he strongly backed Trump positions that he’d criticized in the past. On Fox News on Friday evening, the Indiana governor said he was “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.” In December he derided the ban as “offensive and unconstitutional.”
Pence also backed another signature proposal of the Trump campaign, vowing that a wall between Mexico and the U.S. would be built under their administration. He also said that Mexico would “absolutely” pay for it.
A former No. 3 Republican leader in the House, Pence understands policy and where the levers of power are in Washington. He was in Congress for 12 years, and has occupied the governor’s mansion in Indianapolis since January 2013.
He’s also the kind of restrained career politician Trump has ridiculed over the last year.
One of Trump’s signature campaign anecdotes happened under Pence’s watch-about Carrier Corporation eliminating 1,400 jobs at its Indianapolis air conditioner plant and moving production to low-wage Mexico. Pence also explicitly backs NAFTA and granting normal trade status to China. That’s awkward for Trump, who uses free trade as the scapegoat for lost jobs.
Also unlike Trump, Pence has connections to special interest money from powerful donors like the Koch brothers; he was a strong proponent of the Iraq War; and opposed any attempt to extend anti-discrimination laws to gay people.
Internal documents obtained Friday by Bloomberg Politics show Trump’s campaign aides planned to pitch Pence as the steady hand who can help unify the party-and reel in reluctant business Republicans who backed Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio and evangelical conservatives who pinned their hopes on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
As outlined in the strategy memos, Team Trump intends to promote Pence as a “devout evangelical Christian” and a “job-creating governor” with legal, small business and public policy experience.
As a member of Congress, the Trump memo says, “Pence developed a reputation as an advocate for limited government, fiscal discipline, a strong national defense and traditional family values.”
In holding their first joint rally as running mates in Manhattan, Trump took a different path than the past two Republican presidential nominees, who held their events in important swing states. However, Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain both lost to Barack Obama — and Trump often boasts that he can flip his home state to the Republicans for the first time since 1984. On his way to victory in 2000, then-Gov. George W. Bush formally announced Dick Cheney as his running mate in his home state of Texas, however.
Pence will immediately fly to Indiana for a “welcome home” rally Saturday evening-unaccompanied by his fellow candidate.