Donald Trump Names Indiana Governor Mike Pence as Vice Presidential Running Mate; Possible Policy Differences Between Mike Pence and Donald Trump Examined
WHITFIELD: Welcome back. You're looking at live pictures right now out of Turkey following last night's unsuccessful coup attempt. This is an expat -- this, rather, as an ex-pat and cleric accused of the Turkish government of leading the coup says it might have been staged. He is saying that from Pennsylvania, which is where he's been living. You're looking at live pictures right now. To the left Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey there. All of this, many in the streets after hearing from the Turkish president who earlier also took to the streets, but in Istanbul tried to allay fears and also tried to demonstrate that he is very much still in power of the government there. We'll continue to follow the story throughout the hour. Now to this, U.S. politics, Donald Trump and Indiana Governor Mike Pence have just made their first appearance as official running mates, announcing their new partnership at the news conference this morning in New York.</s>DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Since January of 2013, Indiana's labor force was increased by more than 186,000 jobs. You have to understand, I've gone around to all of these states, I've gone to all of them. And every time I have statisticians. I say give me the stats on this state. And it's always bad, down, down, down. Down 40 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent in some cases. Here's somebody where it's gone up.</s>GOV. MIKE PENCE, (R) INDIANA: And grateful to this builder, this fighter, this patriotic American who has set aside a legendary career in business to build a stronger America, Donald J. Trump.</s>WHITFIELD: And while both Trump and Pence emphasized their similar vision today, the two have had several noticeable policy differences. Here are just a few. Pence supported free trade agreements like the TPP and NAFTA which Trump blasted. The Indiana governor also opposed Trump's proposal about to ban Muslims from the U.S. He also criticized Trump's comments about the Trump University judge. And Pence, unlike Trump, has cut a hard line on LGBT issues. So joining me right now from Cleveland, the site of the Republican National Convention Jamie Weinstein, senior writer for "The Daily Caller," and CNN political analyst Josh Rogin who is also a columnist for the "Washington Post." Good to see both of you. All right, so substantial areas of disagreement between these running mates. So Jamie, could this be problematic, or do you see this as complementary to have two diametrically opposing men now standing together as a unified front?</s>JAMIE WEINSTEIN, SENIOR WRITER, "DAILY CALLER": Well, it's interesting to see what Donald Trump's strategy is here is picking Mike Pence. We know he lamented over the issue after he made it and want to see if he could go back on it --</s>WHITFIELD: Although today, he tried to clarify, did he not, by saying Pence was his first choice?</s>WEINSTEIN: Of course he would say that. I don't think he would come out and say he was my third choice but I went with him anyways. But the reports are that he did have a long night of the soul trying to figure out whether he should go with Pence. But if his strategy is to take Mike Pence in order to consolidate the conservative base and make sure that they rally around him going into general election and that might give him free reign to move to the center on some issues that he is maybe more naturally to the center or the left on, having Mike Pence to try to keep that conservative right flank with him, it might not be a terrible strategy for Donald Trump to choose Mike Pence.</s>WHITFIELD: So Josh, how will voters see these two very different men would actually complement one another, or does it say something more about Donald Trump and a willingness or eagerness to appeal to the establishment?</s>JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the idea here, and Donald Trump said this very clearly during his press conference, was to bring unity to the Republican Party, so doubling down of his strategy to shore up his base and not to sort of reach across the aisle to those new pool of voters that may be on the fence between him and Hillary Clinton. The bottom line here is that the rollout showed that they were not doing a good job of projecting the convergence of these two men. We saw that Mike Pence tacitly endorsed a ban on bringing Muslims to the United States, which is now a suspension of immigration from countries affected by terrorism. They haven't even gotten to all of the other big ones, including trade, including that Mike Pence was a supporter of the Iraq war, including that he had an agreement on immigration that he signed that Trump doesn't agree with. So I think they really haven't gotten to the actual work of convincing voters that this is a good team that can work well together.</s>WHITFIELD: Jamie, was it kind of an odd rollout? I mean, 29 minutes or so, nearly 30 minutes of Donald Trump talking, and he had very scattered messages. He didn't speak in a kind of direct line about why or even justifying why the choice of Mike Pence. Instead he kind of went all over the place and then occasionally went back to Mike Pence. Was that strange?</s>WEINSTEIN: It was strange. What's that famous Rousseau line, "man is born free but is everywhere in chains"? I think we're seeing right now Donald Trump in chains by the advisers around him. They are trying to tame Donald Trump, the Donald Trump we saw in the primary. They're pushing Mike Pence, which, according to reports if you believe them, that wasn't his first choice. They're trying to make his speeches less rambling or at least less incendiary. That's what he's trying to project right now. The question is, this is a man born free, and at some point I think he's going to break those chains and the old Donald Trump from the primary is going to come back because that's the natural Donald Trump. That's the instinctual Donald Trump. The Donald Trump we're seeing right now is kind of the Trump that maybe his advisers are trying to force him into that box on. That's not the natural Donald Trump, and I think eventually he's going to break free of those chains.</s>WHITFIELD: Still a week away from the start of the DNC and still unclear who Hillary Clinton will be selecting as a running mate. One name that keeps popping up, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, and she was quick today to tweet out her response, Josh, about this pairing of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, saying this, "Donald Trump and Mike Pence are a perfect match, too small, insecure, weak men who use hate and fear to divide our country and our people." She also says "Terrifying to think of Mike Pence being a heartbeat away from presidency, but the direction GOP wants to take our country is more terrifying." So Josh, we didn't hear directly from Clinton and her camp but did hear from Elizabeth Warren. What does this say to you?</s>ROGIN: It shows that Elizabeth Warren is still taking the role of attack dog, the role that a traditional vice presidential candidate or aspiring vice presidential candidate would play. But what's interesting here is that Mike Pence is not suited for the role of attack dog. This is a guy who swore off negative campaigning, and he said personal attacks in public life have no place in a campaign. So if you think about it, whoever Hillary Clinton chooses, that person will go after Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Mike Pence will not go after Hillary Clinton and her nominee. That will remain Trump's job for the foreseeable future.</s>WHITFIELD: Josh Rogin, Jamie Weinstein, thanks so much to both of you, appreciate it.</s>WEINSTEIN: Thank you.</s>WHITFIELD: We're also back to France after a short break. Live pictures of a memorial now set up in Nice. Some 200 people are still recovering from this week's terror attacks. Plus we'll continue to monitor events in Turkey as people pour into the streets there after that failed coup attempt.