Donald Trump should say no to Marco Rubio as veep: โDoes a headliner tour with his own cover band?โ
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. โ The 2024 version ๐of โThe Apprenticeโ is finally hurtling toward its season finale.
No, itโs not the TV s๐how โ โrather, the long and winding road toward finding out who will be Donald Trumpโs running mate in 2024.
Amid the oracular statements fromโ the presumptive Republican nomine๐e, shoe-leather reporting is offering some clarity.
And at least one option being considered?
An all-โFlorida Manโ ticket.
Per a six-byline stemwindเถฃer fro๐ฆmย , Marco Rubio is in the mix, along with his Senate colleague JD Vance of Ohio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
If the reporting is accurate โ and NBC has been on point throughout much of the veep search โ this represents a necessary winnowing of the shortlist that has been in play since early ๊งin what passed f๐ผor a Republican primary season this cycle.ย
NBCโs reporting also suggests that in this field of three, Rubio has some handicaps the other candidates do not. Among them: a perceived lack of enthusiasm for the job and the thorny constitutional question created by hav๐ ing both members of the ticket from the same state.
Regarding Rubioโs alleged lack of enthusiasm, thatโs actuaโlly debatable.
While the se๐nator has offered buttoned-up answers to questions like โWil๐ l you take the job?โ and โWhere might you move to if it were offered to you?,โ he also has tried, somewhat laboriously, to present himself as a pitbull defender of Trump.
A leading example: Rubioโs commen๐ ts at the Trump 47 event at Mar-a-Lago this month, in which he defended the former president by clumsily and blatantly ripping off Trumpโs own talking points delivered at countless rallies over the years.
โHeโs made a lot of money. He has a lot of things to enjoy. Heโs got a great family,โ Rubio said. โSometimes I thought, โWhy is this guy doing this? He had a great life.โ Thereโs only one reason why someone like him would be in politics, with all of these hassles. … Thereโs only one reason; because he loves our country and he wants to save it from people that want to destroy it.โ
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Does Trump really need someone to put his own words into the third person? ๐ฎWhereโs๐ฅ the value added? Does a headliner tour with his own cover band?
Regarding moving, Rubio could always do that. Heโs flip-flopped before, such as in 2016, when he swerved Ron DeSantis and others running to take his place in the Senate by jumpin๐g back into the race, claiming the mass shooting at Orlandoโs Pulse nightclub was the reason.
But Rubio is not Dick Cheney, the man who set the precedent for such a move in 2000 as George W. Bushโs running mate. Cheney was a mast๐ฌer operator, one of the most consequential VPs in American history. No one seriously be๐ฅlieves Rubio could do the same.
Arguably the most fatuous case for Rubio was expressed just the other day in theย . The theory: He would be singularly able โto carve aเถฃ Pennsylvania-shaped slice out of the so-called blue wall of Rust Belt states.โ
๐ ทNot sure what thatโs based on. The senatorโs never been proven to be a particularly adroit coalition builโder.
He won with a plurality in 2010, with Kendrick Meek and independent Charlie Crist splitting the left. In 2016, he defeated the weak Patrick Murphy, who did little to win north of Orlando. And in 2022, he benefited from the DeSantis wave to outmatch Val D๐ emings, but underperformed compared to the rest of the slate.
Simply put, Trump doesnโt need Rubio. Itโs Rubio, who has thi๊ฆrsted for the White House for a decaโจde, who needs Trump.
The only Florida mโan who would be a real asset to the๐ ticket may be DeSantis, who says he doesnโt want the job as he eyes promulgating his own brand in 2028.
Burgum and Vance lack the residency issues Rubio presents, โwhich are reason enough to stay away from the all-Florida slate. Beyond that, both present more authentic enthusiasm for Trump than Rubio does.
And both come off better.
Burgum has a cool self-assurance and unflappable๐คช nature that Rubio will never learn.ย
Vance, though new to politics, pr๊งesents like the natural heir to MAGA. And as the author of the once-ubiquitous โHillbilly Elegy,โ he clearly understands narrative.