The “Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” hosts may be a little early to the Donald Trump 2024 Veepstakes party, but when they stumbled upon the topic during a freeform chat Friday, it dawned on the conservative talk radio duo that the choice of Mike Pence in 2016 pales in comparison to what’s ahead for Trump.
“I think Trump’s vice presidential selection is probably the most significant decision he’s going to make, because we know Mike Pence was basically — for Trump, a non-factor,” cohost Travis said. “Right? In terms of, I don’t think he had any impact on how people saw, to a large extent, Trump’s candidacy.”
Sexton, cohost of the conservative talk radio show that’s the heir apparent to Rush Limbaugh, took it a step further, suggesting that Trump’s choice stands to become “the anointed future leader of the GOP.”
Travis agreed, saying that far more than Pence was, Trump’s pick could be more realistically seen as being “a heartbeat away” from the presidency: “This VP pick, I think is going to be seismically important because one, Trump only has one term,” he said. “Two, he would be 78. And so who he selects goes a long way towards setting what the narrative is going to be of 2024.”
Sexton agreed that the age issue is creeping up on Trump, too.
“He’s going to be 80 in the middle of it,” he said. “He may, for reasons of health, have to step down and have the VP take over. And that wouldn’t be some huge surprise. Things happen when people are 80, right?… So the VP pick is definitely very significant.”
The hosts then began to toss around possible candidates, with Travis asking Sexton if there was a person who could actually sway voters to the Republican frontrunner.
“The smartest electoral strategy thing Trump can do to defeat Biden would be to have somebody from — whether it’s in Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan — somebody who could deliver one of those key states as VP. I think that would make sense.”
Both noted that Brian Kemp would be an excellent choice in that vein — if Trump hadn’t picked a fight with the Georgia governor around the 2020 election.
“I think Brian Kemp is a no-brainer VP selection, I just do,” Travis said. “Brian Kemp has a great organization and he is wildly popular. You take Georgia off the board. If you take Brian Kemp, I’m not sure that there’s anybody else out there.”
They also suggested Kari Lake would be an obvious choice — had she actually won the governorship of Arizona, and one fella who actually won his election: “Is it Glenn Youngkin?,” Sexton said. “I don’t know. I mean, Trump’s been attacking him. They don’t have a relationship. It doesn’t seem that’s very strong, and I’m not sure Youngkin could put Virginia in play.”
And that’s where Travis made up his mind about who his pick was — at least as of Friday:
“My top two right now in terms of who I think Trump’s going to pick: Tim Scott and RFK Jr.,” he said. “I still think RFK Jr. is on the horizon for Trump. I still think he would do it.”
