16 for '16: The Most Talked-About Potential GOP Presidential Candidates

[Dos Equis]

He'd actually be a good choice.

Newt Gingrich Tops Trump's VP List

Image: Newt Gingrich Tops Trump's VP List
By John Gizzi
Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is now the leading candidate to be tapped by Donald Trump as his running mate, a close confidante of Trump tells Newsmax.

On Tuesday, Trump told the AP that he has whittled down his choices to 5 or 6 names.

"I have a list of people that I would like," Trump revealed in his interview Tuesday.

But the name that keeps cropping up as his favorite is Gingrich, a Trump confidante tells Newsmax.

Trump has tapped former presidential contender Ben Carson to help pick his running mate.  Carson said Tuesday that he is stepping down from that post to focus on the Thursday meeting between Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump also announced this week that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will head his transition team.

Trump is said to favor Gingrich for several reasons.

First, Trump recognizes he is a Washington neophyte and sees in Gingrich someone who can school him in the legislative process and “make nice” with Capitol Hill.

Trump admitted to the AP he wants a running mate who can help him "with legislation, getting things through."

As Speaker, Gingrich successfully got Bill Clinton to sign legislation abolishing welfare, while agreeing to budget constraints that led to the first balanced budgets in a generation.

Trump has other reasons he is leaning toward Gingrich. He is said to personally like him. Rubio, Newsmax reported, has already been eliminated though he lobbied through surrogates for the job. Rubio has denied doing so.

Trump also finds Ohio Gov. John Kasich “kind of quirky” and not someone he resonates with, the confidante said.

Trump is apparently discarding the traditional approach of picking a running mate to provide geographic or ideological balance to his ticket. Instead he wants someone he “can live with for eight years,” the Trump source said.

This concept of a “simpatico ticket,” while rare, occurred when then-Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas turned to then-Sen. Al Gore of nearby Tennessee to run with him in his successful 1992 bid for president.

Though Gingrich did not endorse Trump, the Fox News commentator was an early defender of Trump in the GOP primary.

In addition, they pointed out, Gingrich helped organize a key meeting of Washington insiders for Trump that included former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R.-LA, and Heritage Foundation President and former Sen. Jim DeMint, R.-S.C.

“Donald values loyalty,” the source said, and Gingrich has been loyal.

Trump told the AP that he also is looking for a candidate who has held office and been under the public microscope.

"For the most part, they've been vetted over the last 20 years," he explained to the AP.

Gingrich has had such vetting, and survived a bitter, though unsuccessful run for president in 2012 against Mitt Romney.

Gingrich is also considered one of the best communicators in the party, and Trump is placing great emphasis on who can go toe-to-toe against Hillary Clinton’s running mate in upcoming debates.

Trump’s camp also is also said to be worried that his move to the center, already underway, may alienate conservative voters.

Gingrich remains a popular “Reaganite” – and could re-assure these voters if Trump takes positions not in line with party orthodoxy, the source said.

Newsmax queried Gingrich if he has been in discussions with the Trump campaign about the VP slot.

He offered a terse email reply: "No."

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/newt-gingrich-tops-trump-vp/2016/05/10/id/728194/#ixzz48MxFAZ4s

[Dos Equis]

Trump: I don’t expect to release my tax returns before November
Colin Campbell
Deputy Politics Editor
May 11, 2016

In a reversal, Donald Trump no longer appears eager to release his tax returns before the November election.

Trump said in a Tuesday interview with The Associated Press that an ongoing Internal Revenue Service audit was his primary reason for not releasing documents. But he also said he didn’t think voters would care.

“There’s nothing to learn from them,” he said.

Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, has for months declined to release his tax returns, citing an audit. However, the billionaire developer previously indicated that he wanted to disclose his records, a traditional practice during presidential campaigns.

“As far as my return, I want to file it,” he said during a February debate. “I will absolutely give my return, but I’m being audited now for two or three years, so I can’t do it until the audit is finished, obviously,” he added.

He also told the Syracuse Post-Standard in April, “I actually look forward to giving the tax returns, but as soon as the audit is complete.”


Donald Trump (Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP)

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, prominently raised the tax return issue in February by speculating about a possible “bombshell” hidden in Trump’s records. Romney is a fierce critic of Trump’s candidacy.

“Either he’s not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasn’t been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay,” Romney suggested at the time. “Or perhaps he hasn’t been giving money to the vets or the disabled, like he’s been telling us he’s been doing.”

There is a long-standing tradition of presidential candidates releasing their income tax filings. Although they are not required to do so, White House contenders have consistently disclosed their tax documents, a tradition that goes back to the 1970s, according to The Washington Post.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate this year, also has been criticized for being slow to release his tax filings. Last year, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton released eight years of tax returns.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-i-dont-expect-to-release-my-tax-returns-133532154.html

[polychronopolous]

He'd actually be a good choice.

Newt Gingrich Tops Trump's VP List

Image: Newt Gingrich Tops Trump's VP List
By John Gizzi
Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is now the leading candidate to be tapped by Donald Trump as his running mate, a close confidante of Trump tells Newsmax.

On Tuesday, Trump told the AP that he has whittled down his choices to 5 or 6 names.

"I have a list of people that I would like," Trump revealed in his interview Tuesday.

But the name that keeps cropping up as his favorite is Gingrich, a Trump confidante tells Newsmax.

Trump has tapped former presidential contender Ben Carson to help pick his running mate.  Carson said Tuesday that he is stepping down from that post to focus on the Thursday meeting between Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump also announced this week that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will head his transition team.

Trump is said to favor Gingrich for several reasons.

First, Trump recognizes he is a Washington neophyte and sees in Gingrich someone who can school him in the legislative process and “make nice” with Capitol Hill.

Trump admitted to the AP he wants a running mate who can help him "with legislation, getting things through."

As Speaker, Gingrich successfully got Bill Clinton to sign legislation abolishing welfare, while agreeing to budget constraints that led to the first balanced budgets in a generation.

Trump has other reasons he is leaning toward Gingrich. He is said to personally like him. Rubio, Newsmax reported, has already been eliminated though he lobbied through surrogates for the job. Rubio has denied doing so.

Trump also finds Ohio Gov. John Kasich “kind of quirky” and not someone he resonates with, the confidante said.

Trump is apparently discarding the traditional approach of picking a running mate to provide geographic or ideological balance to his ticket. Instead he wants someone he “can live with for eight years,” the Trump source said.

This concept of a “simpatico ticket,” while rare, occurred when then-Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas turned to then-Sen. Al Gore of nearby Tennessee to run with him in his successful 1992 bid for president.

Though Gingrich did not endorse Trump, the Fox News commentator was an early defender of Trump in the GOP primary.

In addition, they pointed out, Gingrich helped organize a key meeting of Washington insiders for Trump that included former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R.-LA, and Heritage Foundation President and former Sen. Jim DeMint, R.-S.C.

“Donald values loyalty,” the source said, and Gingrich has been loyal.

Trump told the AP that he also is looking for a candidate who has held office and been under the public microscope.

"For the most part, they've been vetted over the last 20 years," he explained to the AP.

Gingrich has had such vetting, and survived a bitter, though unsuccessful run for president in 2012 against Mitt Romney.

Gingrich is also considered one of the best communicators in the party, and Trump is placing great emphasis on who can go toe-to-toe against Hillary Clinton’s running mate in upcoming debates.

Trump’s camp also is also said to be worried that his move to the center, already underway, may alienate conservative voters.

Gingrich remains a popular “Reaganite” – and could re-assure these voters if Trump takes positions not in line with party orthodoxy, the source said.

Newsmax queried Gingrich if he has been in discussions with the Trump campaign about the VP slot.

He offered a terse email reply: "No."

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/newt-gingrich-tops-trump-vp/2016/05/10/id/728194/#ixzz48MxFAZ4s

Newt = best candidate in 2012

Still think a minority VP pick would help a little more but a Newt pick for VP?

I would freaking love that! He would eviscerate in a debate whatever stooge Hillary put up there.

[240 is Back]

He'd actually be a good choice.

Newt Gingrich Tops Trump's VP List

Newt is ending up to be one of the greatest political chameleons of our time.  

Adopts whatever position is popular like he always owned it.  He'll have us all believing he was cheering loudest for Trump from minute #1.  

He was married, getting BJs under his desk from his secretary, while prosecuting Bill Clinton for lying about the same thing.  He was loudest for global warming being manmade, then magically went in the opposite direction.  Newt actually worked WITH Bill Clinton to give amnesty to millions - and in 2016, he'll magically have all of us believing he supported a wall/mass deportations all along.

http://universalfreepress.com/2014/bill-clinton-newt-gingrich-granted-amnesty-millions-illegal-aliens/



Newt is one flexible dude on position.... which works great for that Trump ticket