Consumers of my daily Wide World of News newsletter read all the way back on January 21 about the argument I made (based on reporting, history, and knowing The Mind of Donald Trump) that Alabama Senator Katie Britt would be Trump’s running mate choice.
The main argument against Britt, to me, has always been that Trump wants his pick to be a surprise, and my early touting of her chances could be seen as spoiling the whole idea.
However, very few articles, polls, or cable news chatter about the early phase of the veeptstakes have included Britt in the mix.
So things have stayed on track.
Until now.
As is widely known, many rising political stars — of both parties — who have been selected to give the SOTU response have completely messed it up.
All I can say is that, consistent with my original essay about Britt’s prospects, reprinted below, I predict she will hit it out of the park. Or, to use the preferred local sports metaphor, she will rush for over 200 yards.
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In the meantime, enjoy my January Katie Britt 101 essay from January below.
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I have never understood the intense fascination with the quadrennial vice presidential selection guessing game on the part of reporters, donors, politicians, activists, political junkies, and Wide World of News readers.
I get fully that my feelings about this make me a distinct minority – maybe a minority of one. All y’all care about this, and I respect that.
But presidential nominee choices for their running mates will eventually be revealed (I promise) and voters don’t make their Oval Office choices based on the bottom of the ticket, so why the obsession, driving months of speculation, about who will be picked?
As long as the presidential nominee shows voters that the choice was made responsibly, ending up with a Number Two who clears the bar of qualifications to assume the top job and passes the vetting process, it is really a non-event.
And yet the endless frenzy of speculation takes up a lot more bandwidth than, say, explorations of which 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue aspirant has the best ideas for lifting children out of poverty.
Despite my orientation towards this mad guessing game, I have played along throughout my career, with some limited success and a lot of tragic-comedic moments, way more failure than triumph.
In 1992, I broke the story that Bob Graham of Florida was under consideration; revealed that the Clinton campaign had secretly polled how Mario Cuomo would do as a pairing; and got two separate exclusive videos of Bob Kerrey in Little Rock for an in-person interview with the Clintons (first, shots of him running into and through the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express; second, footage of him boarding his plane the next morning for his charter flight out of town). Low point: I slept through the phone call that came late at night from one of the most senior officials in the Clinton campaign, who was reaching out, unsolicited, to give me the scoop.
In 1996, I was the first to report that Bob Dole had offered Jack Kemp the slot and that Kemp had accepted; Bob Novak is generally credited with the big break, however, for having reported before me that Dole had settled on the former QB as his selection.
In 2000, walking home from work at the height of the veepstakes, I stumbled on some Secret Service hubbub in front of the apartment building next door – and before I knew it, Al Gore was in my home, asking me who I thought he should select and would select. My guess for both – Dick Gephardt – turned out to be wrong.
In 2008, it was so obvious from the start that Barack Obama would pick Joe Biden that I barely paid attention at all. On the Republican side, I was not anticipating Sarah Palin to be the choice, but, as one of the few national reporters who had ever met her (I spent some quality time with Palin in Palmer, Alaska at the state fair before she was governor), I wasn’t totally surprised. And, after the fact, in “Game Change,” there was a scoop or two about how Palin got chosen.
In 2016, Vaughn Hillyard and I were the only two reporters outside of the Indiana governor’s residence when Donald Trump and his motorcade arrived for a secret meeting with the Pences. I debated briefly whether to tweet or not to tweet that the confab was occurring, knowing that if I posted on the popular social platform I would get credit for the newsbreak, but/and that the stakeout would explode in size. I went with the former.
In 2020, I think I knew before Joe Biden did that he would pick Kamala Harris, based on my certainty that he would select a non-white woman and having once spent about an hour alone with just her, Beau Biden, and me chatting — and seen their bond. I only wavered from my public certainty when a group of Californians tried very hard to derail the choice, giving Team Biden some momentary pause.
Who will Trump choose this year if he is the nominee?
The hysteria is already underway, even before he is the de facto nominee, with lists, arguments, debates, and speculation galore.
Trump, a TV producer at heart, likes nothing more than casting for roles. He also loves loves loves being the maestro in ultimate control of the contours of the guessing game, floating names, gauging reactions, delighting in the speculation on a decision that is his and his alone.
He loves the reality-show-meets-American-history gaudy pageantry of it all, the power to effortlessly manipulate an enormous number of people, keeping them guessing with floats, misdirection, auditions, hints, and false flags.
I have a high degree of confidence, as I did about Biden in 2008 and Harris in 2020, who Trump will choose.
The only reason I think Trump might, in the end, go in a different direction, is that this edition of Wide World of News is going to ruin the surprise – and I can say with an even higher degree of confidence that Trump wants the process to involve weeks of fervent speculation, culminating in a pick that seems to come out of the blue and defy expectations.
On the other hand, Trump famously asked in 2014, “How did we do with Halperin?”
So, barring some change, this will be my first and last word on the veepstakes.
Trump wants a young woman who speaks fluent MAGA and/but can comfortably win over hearts and minds in the suburbs of Philly, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Phoenix. (Sorry, Governor Huckabee.)
He wants someone attractive and charismatic and/but who will not be any threat to overshadow him and make mistakes. (Sorry, Congresswoman Stefanik.)
He wants someone who endorsed him early (enough) and/but who can win over Please Never Again Trump types -- the donors, Capitol Hillers, Gang of 500 members, and the press. (Sorry, Governor Noem.)
He wants someone who can go on TV and savage the Biden record without sounding harsh. (Sorry, Huckabee, Stefanik, Noem, and Kari Lake.)
He wants someone who has enough of a record to clear the commander-in-chief bar but not so much of a record that she can be attacked by the DNC oppo squad or be painted as a DC insider.
He wants someone who talks like a real, normal person and/but can also speak about policy at a high level and be a great communicator on TV.
He wants someone who is a staunch partisan and/but has bipartisan credentials.
He wants someone who will show obeisance and/but has gravitas.
He wants someone whose selection will wow the press and public and freak the heck out of the Democrats.
He wants someone who he can imagine on the debate stage with Kamala Harris -- and loving her chances.
He wants someone whose husband was an NFL player for one of his favorite teams and owners.
He wants someone whose 2024 endorsement statement reads like this:
As a mom, I look around at our country under President Biden, and I don’t recognize it. I see hardworking families struggling just to make ends meet, stressing around the kitchen table about how they will simply afford groceries and gas. I hear from parents who lost children and teenagers who lost siblings or classmates to fentanyl poisonings. I talk to fellow moms who are worried about the rising violent crime in our cities. And I listen to friends and family who look around at the world and wonder if our homeland is secure and if our loved ones are safe….
Make no mistake – every day that President Biden is in office, the United States is weaker, our communities are more dangerous, our families are more at risk, and our future is more imperiled.
And, despite the dark clouds that haunt our country’s horizon, I believe with every fiber of my being that our nation’s best days are yet to come – but I also know it’s not going to be easy. This fight to preserve the American Dream is just getting started. And it starts with the General Election in another 11 months’ time. There is no time to waste – and no room for error.
One candidate has already proven he’s more than up for the job – because he’s done the job successfully. There is one candidate I know will secure the border — because he’s done it. There is one candidate I know will achieve peace through strength — because he’s done it.
And that’s why President Donald Trump has my endorsement to be our 47th President.
Results matter – and the results of his strong leadership as the 45th President of the United States are clear for all to see. These past three years have felt like an eternity, but I’m sure you recall how much better off we were under the Trump Administration.
Think back – do you remember $2.00/gallon gas? A carton of eggs for $1.40 and a gallon of milk for $2.90? The average family’s real income rising by $6,000? That was President Trump’s policies at work.
He secured our southern border. He cut taxes and slashed burdensome regulations. He expanded access to a high-quality education. He stood up for our incredible farmers and cattlemen. He battled for fair trade and held Communist China accountable. He onshored good-paying jobs and began rebuilding critical domestic supply chains and industries. He unleashed American energy dominance. He defended religious liberty. He combatted the opioid epidemic. He made our communities safer. He rebuilt our military, bolstered our readiness, and modernized our capabilities. He fought for our veterans. And he achieved peace through strength – no wars were started under his watch for a reason. Our adversaries feared America, and our allies were protected. He obliterated ISIS, signed the Abraham Accords, kept Putin’s aggression at bay, stared down Kim Jong Un, and squeezed Iran dry.
That’s why President Trump is dominating in the polls and why his insurmountable lead only continues to grow as primary dates draw closer. As the American people have heard from the candidates and continuously borne the brunt of the Biden agenda, they have been further and further reminded of the brighter days of the Trump Administration – and now they’re more energized than ever to make the one choice they know can ensure that those days return. Americans concerned about saving the country we know and love are rallying as a team to retake the White House.
For our future – for the ability of the next generation to fulfill the promise that is the American Dream – it’s time to ensure President Biden only gets one term. Now, let’s come together and move forward towards November 2024.
In the closing days of the veepstakes process, if Trump is the nominee, he will ponder his short list and, in conversations with others and in his own head, he will compare this person with all the alternatives, weighing the pros and cons of the one from Column A and the ones from Column B. Trait by trait and in evaluating the upsides and downsides of his options, the choice to the caster-in-chief will be clear.
He will think about the tableau, about the cinematic scenes of campaigning and governing in his mind’s eye, about what will happen inside his visceral brain when he flips around on cable news on the day he unveils his veep pick and anticipates the reaction he will have to seeing the two of them together, his Dream Team, the validation by his own standards that he has selected the best person to help him win the election and cement his place in history.
Ladies and gentlemen, Trump-Britt ’24: