Trump touts party unity in picking Pence
GOP team shares stage just briefly during VP rollout
NEW YORK — Donald Trump presented running mate Mike Pence to the nation Saturday, hailing the Indiana governor as his “first choice” and “my partner in the campaign.”
But he left no doubt in a sometimes awkward event that Pence’s role will surely be as sidekick.
Trump, reading from notes, lauded Pence’s personal character and conservative credentials. Then he moved on to draw sharp contrasts between the newly formed Republican team and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Yet the announcement lacked much of the stagecraft typically associated with the public unveiling of a running mate, one of the most significant moments under a presidential campaign’s control.
The only sign onstage in the Manhattan hotel ballroom bore only Trump’s name. The two men appeared together just briefly. And Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, spoke for 28 minutes before calling Pence to the stage.
His far-ranging remarks devoted more time to recapping his primary victories — he even found time to tout his new hotel in Washington — than introducing the relatively unknown Pence to America’s voters.
“All right, back to Mike Pence,” Trump said at one point after talking about the Republican Party’s efforts to overturn rules that limit church leaders’ political involvement.
The event — the culmination of a vice presidential rollout that featured mixed signals, second-guessing and a 24-hour delay — was intended to assert that Trump and Pence would stand up to America’s enemies while being “the law and order candidates” at home.
“What a difference between crooked Hillary Clinton and Mike Pence,” Trump said. He added: “He’s a solid, solid person.”
The haphazard rollout, punctuated by a new logo with a massive “T” dominating a smaller “P” that was roundly mocked — and quickly replaced — offered an easy mark for Democrats.
Clinton’s allies pounced on Trump as “indecisive” in a video released Saturday, an attempt to knock back one of Trump’s strengths among voters who may view him as a successful business executive.
“Always divisive. Not so decisive,” the video says.
Pence, standing alone in front of 10 U.S. flags, hewed closely to the populist themes that Trump has voiced on the campaign trail, describing himself as “really just a small-town boy.”
He praised Trump effusively as “a good man,” a fighter, a legendary businessman and a patriotic American.
“The American people are tired,” Pence said. “We’re tired of being told that this is as good as it gets. We’re tired of having politicians in both parties in Washington, D.C., telling us we’ll get to those problems tomorrow.”
Pence got choked up Saturday evening when he arrived home to a cheering crowd celebrating his addition to Trump’s presidential campaign. Pence told those assembled at a hangar that the last few days had been “pretty overwhelming.”
The joint appearance in New York was meant to catapult the party toward a successful and unified Republican National Convention, which starts Monday in Cleveland.
“One of the reasons is party unity, I have to be honest,” he said.
There was little hoopla — and no questions, though Trump on Thursday had billed the event as a news conference.
In contrast, four years ago, Mitt Romney introduced running mate Paul Ryan on the deck of a Navy battleship, the USS Wisconsin, off the shore of swing state Virginia. With cheering flag-waving crowds and a soaring patriotic soundtrack, the pair faced the nation for the first time flanked by a massive red, white and blue banner displaying their new campaign logo.
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. The two men, instead of presenting an image of an emboldened, unified front, barely spent any time on stage together, as Trump quickly exited after greeting Pence with a handshake and arm pat. He did return for a brief photo-op at the end.
The lead-up was anything but smooth over the previous several days.
On Thursday, Trump had convened a midnight campaign conference call about his pick, even after he’d had Pence fly to New York to accept his offer.
He then announced the choice on Twitter, though the presentation event was postponed a day after the truck attack in Nice, France.