Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., does not pretend to be a fortune teller, but in this case he is very clear about what the future holds.
Asked about running for vice president on the Republican ticket with presidential nominee Donald Trump, who he supports, Sessions — a strong conservative who makes many lists of possible running mates — demurred.
“We’ve got enough problems,” he said.
Trump “needs to get somebody who can help him win this election. And that’s what I support. And I’m not sure who that is, but I’m sure it won’t be me,” Sessions said.
As the experts, insiders, pundits and bookies all throw around names, Washington Post columnist Christ Cillizza warned that a canddiate whose campaign was buit on doing the unexpected may follow that course in selecting his running mate.
“Trump relishes being unpredictable, so trying to game out how this most unconventional of politicians will make his mind up is a bit of a guessing game. Add to that the fact that Trump’s inner circle remains largely devoid of establishment types, and you quickly get into a situation where the people talking don’t know much and the people who do know aren’t talking,” Cillizza wrote.
An unconventional choice could have repercussions.
“He could get to Cleveland and designate someone as his vice president and have the convention lose its mind,” said Erick Erickson, an anti-Trump conservative activist.
However, even as the issue looms large in the vacuum created by the sudden collapse of Trump’s Republican opposition, it may be less so to the voters when November rolls around.
“It hasn’t been shown that the vice president helps (win) in a lot of cases,” says John Fortier, of the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank. “Primarily, people vote for the top of the ticket.”
