Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sidestepped the rumored frontrunners in former President Trump’s veepstakes, urging Trump to put forward a different candidate: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).
As the Republican National Convention nears, where the former president said he intends to name his running mate, the search has narrowed in on GOP Sens. J.D. Vance (Ohio) and Marco Rubio (Fla.), and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) — though Trump has also floated Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) in recent days. Sources, however, have indicated that an announcement could come before the convention.
“Rubio would be excellent. Tim Scott would be excellent,” McCarthy said in a panel interview on “Real Time with Bill Maher” Friday evening. “If you really want to play the game, I want to win the election, pick Youngkin in Virginia. Put Youngkin in play and the race is over.”
Maher pushed back on McCarthy’s opinion, asking how choosing Youngkin over the other rumored picks for vice president could help Trump win against President Biden in November.
“If you look at polling right now you would say Trump has Arizona, Trump has Nevada, Trump has Georgia, so that gets him to 267,” he said. “He has to win either Michigan, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania. He has to win one of those three.”
The former lawmaker, who resigned from the House earlier this year after being ousted from the leadership role in a historic vote, said Youngkin was “popular” in Virginia and could help the presumptive GOP nominee carry the state. The Old Dominion State, which has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 2004, boasts 13 electoral votes.
The governor also attended Trump’s most recent rally in the state, marking their first public appearance together.
Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s son, is pushing hard for Vance to be the nominee, while others in the party have thrown their weight behind Rubio or Burgum.
Trump has played coy about who he will choose, sometimes saying that he has already decided while at other times saying that he is still considering his options.
“I have some really, really good candidates. And you know, I may be leaning one way and that changes sometimes,” Trump said in a radio interview Friday. “You know, all of a sudden you see something that you like or you don’t like and you lean a little bit differently.”
McCarthy joked that the search would be “like The Apprentice,” echoing words Trump used during the interview.
But, the former lawmaker added, “he’s going to make you guess who it is.”
Youngkin, who was endorsed by Trump, won his gubernatorial election in 2021, flipping the seat after Democrats held the governor’s mansion for eight years.