OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany revealed on Thursday who she believes her former boss, Donald Trump, will choose as his running mate should he go on to win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
During a segment on the “Outnumbered” program, McEnany and her fellow co-hosts made it clear they think Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is a favorite to get the nod from the former president.
“What I find fascinating from what we just watched is that was him showing, ‘I have chops to be your VP,’” McEnany said after the show played some clips of Scott answering voters’ questions and shaking hands. “Because, in addition to winning over independents, winning over suburban moms, the VP pick must be someone who is the most effective voice for Donald Trump as he is embattled in these court battles. He just proved he can handle that.”
Co-host Emily Compagno agreed.
“What I thought this illustrated so beautifully is that Donald Trump has surrounded himself not with facsimile robots but with independent thinkers that are committed to the ideals and values of conservatism and the Republican Party,” she began. “It just goes to show for me the brand versus party and the brand versus values that the GOP is constantly fighting against the Democrats about.
“And what I mean by that is, every time you put a surrogate for Biden up, they say the same, ‘Biden is great and everything is fine.’ It’s over-simplified, it’s over-generalized, it’s, honestly, it’s not thoughtful. They are facsimiles of each other because they have the brand down,” Compagno continued.
“And the GOP, where we struggle, is that brand identification, but we are committed to the ideals and values. So, we have Tim Scott, so thoughtful, so intellectual, so clear about where he stands on issues,” she added. “He’s not just saying, ‘What does Trump think? Ok, I’m going to say it.’ He’s saying, ‘This is what I think, and you can trust me because this is what we all need right now. And, yes, and the army of Christ is absolutely rising up and he’s tapping into that, too.”
WATCH:
Kayleigh McEnany and her 'Outnumbered' co-hosts believe Trump has settled on a running mate already: Tim Scott. pic.twitter.com/598jUoJDfa
— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) February 23, 2024
Last month, Scott chose to back Trump over another GOP primary opponent and his own state’s former governor, Nikki Haley.
“It’s time for us to unite our party so that we make sure that the only target we’re talking about is firing Joe Biden,” Scott emphasized after formally backing the former president at a Trump campaign rally in New Hampshire’s state capital city of Concord on Thursday.
“The best way for us to get rid of Joe Biden as our president is to unite our party now behind Donald Trump,” Scott, who ended his own 2024 presidential campaign in November, added.
Other one-time GOP candidates have also rallied around the former president.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum teamed up with Trump at a rally in Indianola, Iowa, last weekend as he backed Trump. And multi-millionaire biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy endorsed Trump on Monday night, as he suspended his own campaign following a dismal finish in Iowa’s caucuses. Ramaswamy joined Trump at a rally in Atkinson, New Hampshire, the next evening.
As for Haley, one of her biggest surrogates, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, has backed off his prediction that she would win big just days ahead of his state’s primary.
About a month ago, Sununu predicted that the former South Carolina governor would win the primary in a “landslide” and is now saying that a strong second-place finish behind Trump would be good enough, the New Hampshire Journal reported last month.
His updated position aligns with the prevailing circumstances in the Granite State, the outlet noted, adding that Trump’s substantial lead over the rest of the field in Iowa, by a margin of 30 points, coupled with his consistent double-digit advantage over Haley in the polls, suggested he would have a good night in New Hampshire, which he did.
The South Carolina primary is on Saturday, and Trump is way ahead of Haley, according to the latest surveys.
