Report: Flatfooted Trump Campaign Expected Biden to Pick Karen Bass

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:08 pm

Joe Biden had a lengthy Vice Presidential vetting process that saw 11 different women interviewed for the position. And while all of the candidates brought with them impressive credentials, Kamala Harris was always seen as one of the favorites.

Apparently this was news to Donald Trump and his team. Following yesterday’s announcement, the GOP campaign put forth a statement that called Harris “phony” and falsely claimed that the California senator had called Joe Biden a racist. This claim was fact checked on air by Fox host Neil Cavuto.

On Wednesday, Gabriel Sherman clued his readers into why the GOP response was so tepid. The Vanity Fair writer reports that Trump thought that Biden would be up picking California congresswoman Karen Bass to be his running mate.

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A Republican source said, “Trump’s view was that Biden would prefer a candidate with Bass’s low national profile and one who wouldn’t outshine him. Trump was also hopeful that Bass, a California congresswoman, would join the ticket given her record of making positive comments about the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.”

Bass did have some forward momentum towards the end of the vetting process. She was one of the first Vice Presidential candidates to publically show support for Harris on Tuesday.

Sherman also reports that Trump is having a hard time wrapping his head around the continually pro-Biden national polls. A Republican aide told him, “Trump keeps asking people, when are voters going to realize Biden is mentally out to lunch? But he’s only seeing clips of Biden screwing up.”

Todd Neikirk

Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.