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Meet Mike Pence, Trump’s little-known vice-presidential pick
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump insisted on Saturday Mike Pence, the Indiana governor he picked as his running mate, was his “first choice” and called him a “solid, solid
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump insisted on Saturday Mike Pence, the Indiana governor he picked as his running mate, was his “first choice” and called him a “solid, solid person”.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee may still have been trying to convince himself that he had made the right choice. He wasn’t sure up until Thursday, the day before he was expected to announce his vice-presidential pick.
But the word was already out. In a state of panic Trump is said to have asked his closest advisers if there was a way to get out of it, and go with one of the others on his shortlist.
The 57-year-old Pence is most unlike Trump. He is understated where Trump is over the top, he keeps a low-profile while the realestate magnate is all about himself, all the time.
And many had not even heard of Pence despite a long career in politics.
A recent poll showed 74% Americans had not heard of him enough to form an opinion of him. In another poll, a combined 68% of the respondents had either not heard of him or didn’t have an opinion about him. No wonder Trump was uncertain.
Trump was also weighing former speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who turned an early backer after dropping out of the race for the White House.
Both men are known around the country, perhaps as much as Trump himself — Gingrich ran for the Republican ticket in 2012 against Mitt Romney.
Christie built a reputation as a tough-talking governor who hurled headlong into confrontations, not unlike Trump, who, in fact, turned out to be better at it.
Pence, on the other hand, seems cut from a different cloth. Heisquiet, generally non-controversial, and quick to back out of confrontations as he did on a 2015 anti-gay and lesbian order.
Within a week of signing into law a legislation that allowed Indiana businesses to turn away gay and lesbian customers, he backed down in the face of a country- wide backlash.
Pence is opposed to same-sex marriages and abortions. He doesn’ t believe in climate change.
