Steve Bannon Thinks Trump Will Pick Female VP, Names Intriguing Options
While supporters of former President Donald Trump may have been getting increasingly excited about the possibility of a certain former Fox News host being chosen as Trump’s running mate, but one man who has been very close to the former president’s political thinking in the past has a message for those folks:
Don’t get your hopes up.
Steve Bannon, who served as both the chief executive of Trump’s 2016 campaign and as a senior adviser to the president after the election told Sean Spicer on Thursday that he expected Trump to choose a woman as his potential vice president.
Spicer, another veteran of the Trump administration, asked Bannon whether he thought Tucker Carlson would make a good vice president and why.
“I think Tucker would make a great vice president,” Bannon replied. “I think he’s got a very clear vision of what MAGA and America First are. He’s got a very clear vision of the … policies of it, he’s savvy in politics — and he’s got something that is so important in today, the ability to communicate.”
However, Bannon said, the chances of Carlson getting the nod were somewhere on the continuum between slim and none.
“My thinking is very structured that I believe President Trump will have a female as the vice president,” Bannon said, a position with which Spicer appeared to agree vehemently.
Spicer then asked Bannon to “give me that list” of 10 potential female running mates. Bannon started with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
“Kristi Noem, I think, will be very competitive,” Bannon said, “given her understanding of the MAGA movement, came out of the Tea Party, very close to President Trump.”
Bannon quickly listed New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Arkansas Gov. and former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, a name Spicer pushed back on, given Mace’s negative past comments about Trump.
“She voted to send me, Shaun, to a federal prison,” Bannon said, laughing. “And [yet] she’s been ‘War Room’ twice.”
“I’m not saying she’s a perfect candidate, there’s not a lot of perfect candidates there, right? All of them have some pretty big short fallings, at least as of now,” he explained. “I think Nancy Mace would have to be included on the list.
“First off, just her Trumpian attitude. She comes at this with a brashness and a set of titanium [testicles],” Bannon added. “Trump loves fighters, right?”
Bannon added a few other names to the list, including former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, current Arizona senate candidate Kari Lake, and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
You can watch the video of Bannon and Spicer’s discussion below.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds would have been in the top five, Bannon said, had she not recently endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Trump has about eight months to finalize his decision, as the 2024 Republican National Convention will not be held until July 15, 2024.
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