Pence Takes Turn at Trump’s Microphone With Vice President Decision Imminent

Indiana Governor Mike Pence introduced the prospective Republican nominee at a rally Tuesday.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump teased the possibility that he would pick Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate. 

 “I don’t know whether he’s going to be your governor or your vice president, who the hell knows?” Trump said at the end of his speech at a campaign rally Tuesday evening in Westfield, Indiana. “You’re going to call him up and you’re going to say, ‘Governor, or vice president, sir,  please, please speak to Mr. Trump. We’re winning too much.'”

Pence, 57, is the latest vice-presidential hopeful to appear with Trump at a campaign rally over the past week, and was warmly received by the capacity crowd in his home state when he described the billionaire as “no other leader in my lifetime since Ronald Reagan.

“He’s been successful on Wall Street but he’s never turned his back on Main Street,” Pence said of Trump.

Each audition-style appearance has been slightly different for the prospective vice presidential picks. 

Trump took the stage to Free’s “All Right Now,” and smiled as he shook hands and finger-pointed at Pence. It was a photo-op that Trump didn’t offer on Monday to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who spoke before Trump’s speech in Virginia Beach, Virginia, but didn’t introduce him.

When Tennessee Senator Bob Corker introduced Trump at his July 5 rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, the pair stood side by side, and the difference in their height and build was striking. The 5-foot-8-inch Corker looked almost child-like as Trump towered over him.

Trump called Corker a “great friend” and “respected by everybody.” Corker delivered only a few lines, saying: “It says a lot about a person to meet their family, to spend time with their kids.” The crowd didn’t go wild until Corker said he “figured out the reason you love him so much.” The audience whooped uproariously and shouted Trump’s name.

Trump didn’t stand on stage with Newt Gingrich when the former speaker of the House introduced the presidential contender at his rally in Cincinnati July 6. Gingrich took a few whacks at the Clintons, but his 10-minute speech was thick with accolades for Trump.

When Trump took the stage, he patted Gingrich’s shoulder but said nothing about him. It wasn’t until the Ohio audience repeatedly chanted “Neeeeeeeewt” that Trump paid Gingrich some compliments, promising he’d be part of a Trump administration in some form.

Trump Addresses Dallas

During Tuesday’s freewheeling speech, which was delivered without a teleprompter, Trump continued to urge support for the victims of July 7 Dallas police shootings as well as for Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two black men killed by police that set of the demonstration where the Texas officers were assassinated. 

“We pray for all the wounded survivors. We pray for our country, so important. The police are not just part of our society. The police are the best of our society. Remember that. We have to remember that,” Trump said hours after President Obama delivered an address at a memorial service in Dallas. 

“They represent our highest ideals, our greatest values and our most noble characteristics. When our police are attacked, our entire nation is attacked,” Trump said. 

Referencing Sterling and Castile, “the two people that were killed in Louisiana and Minnesota, it was tough — it was tough to watch.”

“For everybody here, it was tough to watch. We have to figure out what’s going on,” Trump said.  “Was it training? Was it something else? It could have been something else… we have to get to the bottom of that.”