First Read: “Raise your hand if, after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence arrived in New York late yesterday afternoon, you thought there would still be some doubt who Donald Trump’s running mate would be. But here we are — less than four hours before the deadline for Pence to remove his name for re-election to be Trump’s VP. And we’re still not 100% sure Pence is the guy.”
“There are two ways to interpret Trump’s ‘I haven’t made my final, final decision’ to Fox News last night. One, the pick is definitely Pence, but Trump didn’t want the attack in France to overshadow the VP announcement, so he played coy. Or two, there’s some serious second-guessing going on with Trump. And if so, you have to conclude there’s a divide with Trump’s professional political team and Trump himself — either Trump got cornered into the Pence pick, or the staff got ahead of him.”
“To say the least, this hasn’t been an artful VP pick rollout. (Why cancel your VP announcement event because of France, but then call in, twice, to Fox?) On Fox News this morning, Trump’s top political aide Paul Manafort said, ‘[Trump] isn’t prepared to announce it until he announces it… I don’t know if he’s having second thoughts, but he hasn’t announced it yet.'”
Rick Klein: “It’s hard to imagine a single action – even from Trump – that would more inflame his own party than going back on his commitment to Pence at this stage. He would be ensuring chaos at his own convention – and would immediately undo any of the goodwill he’s accumulated among prominent party voices.”
