Trump announces Indiana Governor Mike Pence as running mate
WASHINGTON, JULY 16: Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican US Presidential nominee, announced on Friday he had chosen Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate.
“I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate,” wrote Trump on his Twitter account.
The pick of Pence as running mate came as Trump was scrambling to solidify the Republican base and win support from social conservatives, Xinhua news agency reported.
Pence, 57, was a Republican lawmaker for 12 years and the third-highest-ranking member of the GOP in the House before becoming the Governor of Indiana in 2013.
During his stint in Congress, he was assigned to the Foreign Affairs Committee, a credential which could make up for Trump’s lack of foreign affairs experience in a competitive general election with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party.Once calling himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order”, Pence is also a beloved social conservative among the devout evangelical conservatives within the party, the agency added.
Therefore, Trump’s pick of Pence would also help to quell concerns among social conservatives that the New York billionaire developer is too liberal on social issues.
However, the two differ on a range of issues crucial to Trump’s candidacy.
During the primary season, Pence endorsed Trump’s rival Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and was once a vocal critic of Trump’s proposal for a temporary ban on Muslim entering the country.
Unlike Trump, Pence also joined US President Barack Obama and House Speaker Paul Ryan to back the Trans-pacific partnership deal, a trade deal staunchly opposed by Trump.
Presumptive Democratic candidate for the US presidency Hillary Clinton on Friday said that the choice of Indiana Governor Mike Pence to be Donald Trump’s running mate is further evidence of the Republican presidential candidate’s “dangerous plan for America”.
“If you had any doubts about Trump sticking with his dangerous plan for America, say hello to his VP pick,” Clinton said on her Twitter account immediately after Trump made the appointment official that had already been a well-known secret since Thursday. Trump made the announcement on Friday on Twitter, and will address the media on Saturday. The press conference on the subject was originally scheduled for Friday but was postponed following the terrorist attack on the French city of Nice, Efe news reported.
The Clinton campaign said in a statement that Pence is “the most extreme Vice Presidential pick in a generation”, and posed the question: “Think Donald is divisive? Meet his running mate”, then brought up the presumptive VP’s history of “discriminatory politics and failed economic policies that favour millionaires and corporations over working families”.
“Voters deserve better than more of their divisive policies and ‘me-first’ economic proposals. This new Trump-Pence ticket stands in dramatic contrast to Hillary Clinton’s vision of our future -- one where we are stronger together, where unity prevails over division and the economy works for all Americans, not just those at the top,” Efe news quoted Clinton’s campaign director John Podesta as saying in the note.
The Democrat highlights in the message Pence’s background of strict conservatism as well as his opposition to immigration reform.
In the House of Representatives, where he served between 2003-2013, Pence led the kind of battles praised by social conservatives, and as governor signed a law allowing gays to be refused services for religious reasons, and another banning abortion because of serious fetal disabilities like Down syndrome.
In political circles, Pence is seen as a “consensus choice” that could make Trump more “palatable”, not only among the party’s elite but also for ultraconservative voters and the powerful evangelical segment.
