Conservative political consultant and commentator Roger Stone gave former President Donald Trump a surprising running mate suggestion in the 2024 race for the White House.
Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and will likely go up against President Joe Biden again in November. There has been a lot of speculation about Trump’s pick to join him on the ticket.
Stone was a political consultant for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. In 2019, he was convicted on seven counts—stemming from U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Muller’s investigation—five counts of lying to Congress, one of witness tampering and one of obstructing a congressional committee proceeding into Russian involvement in the 2016 election. He was sentenced to more than three years and granted clemency by Trump in 2020.
Newsmax’s Eric Bolling asked Stone on Thursday night: “If you were to whisper the VP pick of Roger Stone’s choice into Trump’s ear right now, who would that be?”
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Stone responded: “He hasn’t confided in me, to be very clear, and I don’t speak for him in any way. I think his list is getting larger rather than smaller.”
Stone listed the qualities of Trump’s ideal pick.
“I think he needs somebody, first and foremost, [who] has the judgment and the experience and the capacity to be president if God forbid something should happen to Trump,” he said.
“Then secondarily, I think he needs someone who will carry the America First revolution forward, should they succeed him. And then, thirdly, you want someone who is sure-footed, someone who’s experienced, somebody who will not get tripped up in the first week.”
Bolling then interrupted Stone to ask if he had anybody specific in mind.
“You know who I’d like, I just thought of this last night, Devin Nunes—20-year member of Congress, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, someone Donald Trump is very close to and trusts entirely, Hispanic, a former farmer before he went to Congress. I think he’d be an excellent choice,” Stone replied.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign via email and Nunes via online form for comment.
Nunes, who is not Hispanic, is of Portuguese-Azorean heritage. Hispanic people are from Spain or Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America. The group does not include people from Portugal or Portuguese-speaking Brazil.
The former Republican congressman from California is the CEO of the media and tech company Trump founded, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns Truth Social. Before that, he served in the House as a representative from 2003 to 2022.
According to a The Economist/YouGov poll conducted from March 24 to 26, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has the most support for Trump’s VP spot out of the options given with 64 percent approval.
Meanwhile, 51 percent of Americans approve of South Carolina Senator Tim Scott taking the position and 39 percent approve of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Some other options included Texas Governor Greg Abbott with 52 percent approval, bio-tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy with 50 percent and former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley with 35.
The poll surveyed 1,594 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percent.
DeSantis, Scott, Ramaswamy and Haley all ran against Trump in the primaries but eventually dropped out. Of the four, Haley is the only one who has yet to endorse Trump.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.