Sen. Tom Cotton has emerged as another leading candidate to be former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick.
According to sources who spoke with The New York Times, he’s one of several candidates — all of them males — who are Trump’s favorite.
The other candidates include North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Sens. Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, and J.D. Vance.
“The former president has also discussed the five Republican men as potential candidates for administration posts if he were to unseat President Biden in November,” the Times notes.
The Times’ sources cautioned though that Trump’s faves might change. In fact, they’ve already changed in a matter of days.
Speaking to News 12 New Jersey last week after his jampacked Bronx rally, Trump was asked to share his top candidates for running mate.
“Well, we have so many,” he replied. “I don’t want to do that, but we have so many. You could take people like Ben Carson. You could take people like [Sens] Marco Rubio, JD Vance. I mean, there are so many. [Rep. Elise Stefanik] is doing a fantastic job here. But I could go on for quite a long time. We have many people that would do a really fantastic job.”
Trump floats four names as potential VP picks https://t.co/u2BijD4GbW via @americanwire_
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) May 24, 2024
What’s for certain, according to the Times, is that Trump’s latest list “reflects [his] desire to choose a running mate who would carry relatively little risk of creating unwanted distractions for a presidential campaign already facing multiple legal threats.”
This is especially true of Cotton.
“The former president has said privately that he views Mr. Cotton as a reliable and effective communicator in cable news interviews,” according to the Times.
“Mr. Trump has also praised Mr. Cotton’s Army service, which included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fact that he is a fellow Ivy League graduate,” the paper notes.
Pressed by the Times, Cotton’s spokesperson declined to comment. As for the senator himself, last week he reportedly told Fox News that his private discussions with the former president have been mainly on how to win reelection.
“When we do talk, we talk about what it’s going to take to win this election in November — to elect President Trump to another term in the White House and elect a Republican Congress, so we can begin to repair the damage that Joe Biden’s presidency has inflicted on this country,” he said.
What about the public — how do they feel about Cotton? It seems to depend. Supporters of Israel for their part appear to be fully behind the guy:
Tom Cotton would be a pretty good choice. The Israeli war effort is the great moral issue of our time and it would be important to have a steadfast supporter as VP. And unlike some of the other candidates he’s actually smart. pic.twitter.com/Tp5PrDOFUK
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) May 24, 2024
But many other Republican voters have pushed back on him as a pick, arguing that he’s a swamp-dwelling so-called “RINO” who cares more about funding Israel’s war against Hamas than taking care of Americans.
Look:
Cotton is a traitor and a RINO
— Behavioral Science Groyper (@Skyrim_Groyper) May 26, 2024
He’s not the worst of them, but he’s definitely one of them…the swamp.
— smh (@smhc8) May 26, 2024
Another huge RINO votes with Democrats almost 100% of the time
— anna kroning2 (@annakroning2) May 25, 2024
Nooooooo Rinooooos
That excludes every member of Congress. Both houses. And most governors.
Dr. Carson is the best choice.
— America First. (@Candor536) May 25, 2024
I use to like him, but he has consistently been voting on bills that don’t address our southern border, as long as the bill has billions and billions of funding for Israel and Ukraine’s borders. American first, we are being invaded, Americans r being raped, robbed and murdered!!
— Joseph Herbert (@jherbert71) May 25, 2024
RINO war monger. pic.twitter.com/78mvCNiW90
— USA (@noyesboyz) May 25, 2024
The Times notes that one thing that could hurt Cotton’s chances is that he voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. But on the other hand, Rubio and Scott also voted similarly. And though Burgum wasn’t involved with the votes, he did praise former Vice President Mike Pence for not overturning the election.
Another factor that could hurt Cotton is his rising star status, the Times warns.
“Mr. Trump … has undermined allies in the past when he perceived them to be intruding on his spotlight,” the paper notes.
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Author: Vivek Saxena
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