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Trump's VP Choices: Newt Gingrich, Jeff Sessions, Condi Rice?
Saturday, June 11, 2016 07:12 PM
By: Todd Beamon
Donald Trump asked about 5,000 supporters at a rally in Florida on Saturday who his vice presidential pick should be — and they shouted out a bevy of names.
However, the presumptive nominee repeated only three from the stage in Tampa, Fox News reports: Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The three names have surfaced as possible running mates for Trump, but a close confidante told Newsmax last month that Gingrich, the former Georgia senator, was at the top of the list.
Trump has long said that he was seeking a running mate with deep experience within Washington who could help him "with legislation, getting things through."
Gingrich, 72, told Bill O'Reilly on Fox News last month that "you have to look at it very seriously, of course" regarding the possibility of joining Trump on the Republican ticket.
"I regard Donald as an old friend," said Gingrich, who was House speaker from 1995 to 1999.
He said that he and his wife, Callista, "have regularly talked with him for the last five or six years during the campaign occasionally. I do more of it by email than I do phone.
"We have communicated on a routine basis with the campaign and with Trump and his family."
Gingrich has said recently that Trump should stop his attacks on the judge in his Trump University civil lawsuit. Though that led to speculation that Gingrich's name could be taken off Trump's short list, Trump actually has heeded advice to stop talking about the judge.
Gingrich himself also said that Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker would also make a good running mate because he is "a very stable guy."
Corker, 63, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Trump met last month at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
But Corker played down the vice presidential possibility after the session.
"I have no reason whatsoever to think that I am being considered,” the senator told reporters afterward. "This was a meeting between two people who didn't know each other except over phone calls, getting to know one another.”
Sessions, 69, the first sitting senator to endorse Trump, ruled out the possibility earlier this month. The billionaire named Sessions his national security adviser in March.
"Don't bet any money on me," he told reporters outside the Senate chamber. "I think that would not happen.
"I have not talked with him about it."
Sessions sits on three key Senate committees — armed services, budget and judiciary — and chairs the Immigration and the National Interest Subcommittee.
As for Rice, 61, who served under President George W. Bush, she has long ruled out seeking elective office.
