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Everybody. This is Angela Raie, Andrew Gillim and Tiffany Cross and you're tuned into this week's mini pod. Hey y'all, what hey, Okay, So there's a whole thing. You know, Donald Trump has some black friends, not many, but a few. And one of them, as you all know, who went to school in Florida and spent some time at FAM. You Andrew, how about this rattler rattling some nonsense, as tiff would say, Byron Donald out here talking about, uh, black folks were better under Jim Crow. And as we know,
he is a potential running mate for Donald Trump. He's not the only potential black friend that Donald Trump is looking at. Allegedly, there's Ben Carson, there is Tim Scott, and I heard Clarence Thomas might even consider leaving the Supreme Court for this role. Will but you know, birds of a feather, so why not? And then there's also been some conversation about Marco Rubio and some others. But one of the things that I thought was most interesting recently.
I know Tip doesn't love polls, but sometimes I like some of these numbers. This was interesting that a majority of black voters said they would be less likely to vote for Donald Trump if he chose any of the three black men frequently mentioned as potential vice presidential candidates. Again, this is from the USA Today, Suffolk University Paul three black men. They said they would be less likely to vote him for Ben Carson, Tim Scott, and Byron Donald's So, yeah, WHI ch'all think about that?
I mean, people know they capan basically, and I don't think there's any real chance that any of the three of them end up being seriously considered here, let alone becoming the vice presidential nominee, because as far as Donald Trump is concerned, they work for free.
Why would he pay them, why would he promote them?
Do you think he's gonna get them?
If it's not, If it's not Donald, it's not Carson, it's not Scott, who he needs gonna get well.
Latest reporting has Governor Bergham from North Dakota, jd Vance, Senator from Ohio UH and Marco Rubio as being his top finalist under consideration for you know, for the seat, considering that he needs to bring in, if you will, that that faction of mainline Republicans who are yes, you could put them in the in the camp of the former.
Vice president who basically said I.
Can't be with them.
May what do you call them? Sort of mainline.
Mainstream not jd Vance, May, Marco rub Yeah, on the fringe.
He yeah, I think they're kind of He's not on the front. I mean I first of all, all of them had a different story to tell when they were running against him, that back in twenty sixteen. All of them had a different set of insults, except now all of them have capitulated. I mean they they are hook line sinker right there with them. But those reportedly are
the kind of top three leading contenders. And I don't know why at least Stephanic from New York is not more mentioned there other than the fact that Trump can't a buy a woman beneath them, I don't know.
That might be the only place he could find a woman. But carry on, Tiff, what do you think about this?
You know, I have to be honest. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about or his VP stakes. I think it doesn't matter who he picks the people who are a member of his cult. He could name Ronald McDonald as his running mate. It's not going to impact who votes for him or how I certainly don't pay attention to the polls talking about how they care about he votes. He has not expanded his reach, nor
has he seemed to narrow his reach. So I and the vice president, quite frankly, is a pretty superfluous position, and in recent history only have we seen it carry more significance with Mike Pince, who you know, pursued certifying the election results, and with Vice President Kamala Harris, with people giving her outside well she wasn't never vice president.
I mean, I think that was one of those examples of a consequential choice, if there ever was one.
I mean, yeah, well, but I guess the point I'm making is the actual position of resident right is pretty superful, like you don't have a lot of responsibility. I think we saw that change under Vice President Kamala Harris. And my point about Mike Pence was what did he really do other than choose to certify the election results? So I don't know that it matters.
I mean, it could, it could not matter, But I also think. I mean, for me, I'm a political I love this stuff, and I think it's interesting to talk about, you know, who are the options and what made them become options? Right, Like it's like, okay, Donald Trump is trying to make inroads with the black community. I think there are some folks, including surprisingly so many mainstream outlets that are taking this story on and running with it with no factual data to support this influx of black men.
Who are you know, loving on Donald Trump in ways that they cannot prove. But it is fascinating to see him have three potentials on the short list. I know you said Andrew that at least dephonics do on her. She's in this political article that just came out yesterday. She actually is is on this short list, and so is Tom Cotton. So I think a lot of these folks are not so moderate that there these are a lot of extreme people on.
This No, I don't think.
I think when I said mainline, what I was attempting to communicate, but you know, I mess aways up and stuff. What I was attempted to communicate was that one not mainstream, but mainline Republican meaning the traditional defense Uh you know, uh, faith yeah, you know, sort of mainline Republican could could see themselves reflected it. It is what Pence sort of
did for him, you know, the first go round. Evangelicals, you know, held their noses supposedly, although I think they went full head first in and I think they still are there.
I think we should.
I think it is worth it to assess or at least interrogate how it is that each of the black and viduals who were mentioned as being real contenders here, I think for all intent and purpose, and I guess the reporting I saw was maybe sixteen hours ago. I think we're talked about him having reduced his list down to three, and if that is true, none of those three are any of the black candidates who had been banded about. I just think it's a flirtation, but it's
never a real commitment. Yeah, and I think that's his whole thing with to the extent that he goes the distance of flirting with black folks, there's never a date, and that date then never leads to anything really real. And by the way, I'm totally fine with that.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know one thing that I think is interesting, and you talked about this earlier tiv I'm curious to know your feedback on this. The folks that have gone back and forth for Trump, like when they're not on the ticket or not being considered for the ticket, when they're running against him, even in campaigns where they're not
on the like when JD. Vance was running against the record of Donald Trump, he called him America's hitler, right, Marco Rubio at one point he and Donald Trump were at each other's throats and he was little Marco right like, there there are these moments and then you just see them take this pivot. I've always said, I'm like, what does he have on these people to make them take these hard one eighties? It is astonishing to me.
With Jay Cruz, he basically, you know, rented out his wife and this man is caping for him day in day out in the US Senate.
Absolutely, So I think these are some of the things that are fascinating to me. I wonder what some of the gaps would be in, you know, on Donald Trump's ticket, like what does he need to fill. I know that it probably now would be good to not be convicted of any serious crimes, especially given ones that you know involve your your integrity veracity trust. I'm thinking too about out you said, you talked about mainstream main line. It's
different to you. But there may be someone who's more moderate. There's a whole never Trump cohort of Republicans that allegedly still exists. So is that a role he needs to play this? He needs to look like he's unifying the party, even with his daughter in law over at the rn C. Now, what is what is the requirement to ensure that they have a viable ticket versus Biden and Harris.
I don't think moderate's real uh in the Republican Party anymore. I just I don't think it is a value. I don't think it is a goal. I don't think people make it a trajectory, a place by which to aim and and and aspire to. I don't think it exists, and I don't think it is merited anymore within the party to the extent that it ever was. Absolutely right now, it's not even merited to be that is, to be
a Rhino, a Republican in name only. As for as I'm concerned, I will say I do have a question as to whether or not it's legal for Donald Trump to choose Marco Rubio, being that they are both from the state, the same state. And I haven't looked deeply into this till if I know you are obviously how resident journalists here.
But the twelfth Amendment, you know, you know.
Sort of directly goes at the electors not being from the same states, the president and the vice president, and so I just.
I had no idea. This is the first time I never heard that neither the president could not pick a vice president from the same state. And that's in the constitution.
Yeah, the twelfth Amendment, I had no idea.
I didn't know neither. I'm like, and I took constitutional law.
I'm going to read while we talk did not choose the president before the first day of the president's term. The individual elected vice president would act as president.
You know what we could do is we can leave this and I can ping Ellie missed out to see if he'd be willing to yes to answer.
Let me see if requick.
I'm just gonna ask him if he is in a video, because we can be like, you know what, now, we done got confused.
We don't know who Trump is gonna pick, but we do.
Have expert I love it.
Let me see if I can call him real quick to see if you do this one a second.
Hi, I'm Ellien mstal and Andrew brought up something that I had not thought about. Marco Rubia, the thirsty senator from Florida, probably cannot be the vice president for Donald Trump, the convicted felon from Florida. The problem is the twelfth Amendment. Now, I think of the twelfth Amendment as the Hamilton musical amendment. You see, at the founding, the vice president was the
person who finished second in the presidential election. It's fine in a role that has no parties, but in the real world, the second place runner up to the president is a rival of the person who actually won the presidential election. So the rule is somewhat obviously stupid. Now, if you've seen Hamilton the Musical, you'll remember that Aaron Berg, right after he gets his ass kicked by Thomas Jefferson, kind of pathetically says, oh, mister Jefferson, I look forward
to serving as your vice president. And Jefferson says coldly, that's a dumb rule. But we can change it. You know why, because I'm the president, and that is that is the essence of the twelfth Amendment. Now, it didn't happen in real life like it happened in the musical. But in eighteen oh four, at the behest of then President Thomas Jefferson, the Twelfth Amendment was passed and ratified, and it specified that the president and the vice president would run on the same ticket and be voted for
at the same time. And that is the system that we still have today. But there was a catch. The very first line of the Twelfth Amendment reads, the electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least shall shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. What that means in actual English is that the president and VP can both be from the same state, but the electors from the Electoral College, the people who
do the actual voting. The electors cannot vote for a president and VP who are both from the state of the elector themselves. In the Trump Rubio context, that means that if they ran together, even if Trump won Florida, Florida's electoral votes could not go to Donald Trump. Not that the electoral votes of Florida have ever been important in a presidential election before right. I'm obviously referencing the two thousand presidential election between George Bush, George W. Bush,
and Al Gore. But this twelfth Amendment issue actually almost came up during the two thousand election race. Back then, Bush's VP pick tywand Lanister, I mean Bush's VP pick Dick Cheney were both residents of Texas. Right. That fact could have cost Bush Texas's electoral votes. So at the very last minute, Dick Cheney changed his residency from Texas, where he was living, to Wyoming, where, in fairness, he had a vacation house and had previously been on that
state's congress person. Right, So Cheney switched his residency to avoid the twelfth Amendment issue. Now, I'm sure little Marco, who is so desperate to lick Trump's boots, would be happy to claim residency in any other state to allow him to be VP. The problem is, Rubio isn't just a resident of Florida. He's the state's senator. So it's pretty hard for him to claim all of a sudden that he actually lives in another state when he's the
representative from Florida. I don't think it's gonna matter because I don't think Rubio is going to be picked. Personally, I still think Tim Scott is the leader in the clubhouse. Tim Scott's currently a resident of the Sunken Place, so the twelfth Amendment shouldn't apply. But it is interesting, right, It's it's interesting that Rubio has debased himself for a position that he probably won't ever be picked to fill
because of this Twelfth Amendment problem. If only Mark or Rubio had ever read just once the Constitution of the United States of America.
Okay, so we had to tap in our constitutional law expert, Ellie miss Style, because we got confused. Andrew and got me confused. He told me something is illegal. Then it kind of does look illegal, but it's not illegal and just could mess up a whole election, which is it's just as important as being illegal. So we had to ask Ellie.
Ellie Mestahal, who's a writer at the Nation but also one of your favorite political analysts. You can see him on all the networks, and he is also obviously a lawyer.
So this get equal complete ludicrosity, or it could be a really great constitution.
This is a great like, this is so much better than Trump. Viepsakes to me, because the thing that we don't the thing that we have to start paying attention to, is there are random, crazy things that have never happened in history over the last four years, starting you know, and really before that, starting with his election, with Trump's election in twenty sixteen, he started with a Muslim band, right, like, there are all kinds of crazy things that are happening
that are ahistorical. Now this man is running for president the first time ever we have there's a Supreme Court case. I just hit a bush that's not real. Sorry bush, but now we're talking about the bushes. Anyway, let me just say this. Now we are also having to consider whether or not a president needs complete and full immunity. That is what we're up against. So we need to
know all of the potential factors. There was an insurrection on Capitol Hill, Like, we have to know all of the things that could happen because all of the things keep happening. So Andrew, I love.
Yeah, just is the vice president of voting member? Is he a figurehead? But yes, and no, I mean to your point around the questions that we never had to interrogate before because the system never got stretched that far. Yes, with Donald Trump in formula with him and play everything's on the table, all the guardrails. Everything we thought was sacrisanc and just obvious.
It just isn't.
That's exactly right.
So I'm so glad that one we had an on ramp into Trump Beepsteaks, which TIF couldn't give a damn about. But we ended up in somewhere in a constitutional law question, having to look at the eighteen hundreds for when this thing might have even applied, and then I'm still not completely clear, but thankful to Ellie our lifeline. We got it worked out, and if not, we want to hear from y'all. You guys are constitutional law experts at home,
some of y'all out here TikTok experts. Some of y'all actually went to law school like me and still might not know. I want to hear from all of y'all. We want to hear from all of y'all because Native Lampod is a space where you can not only send in your questions, but also send in your answers, and you might want to know why we even got into these weeds. Welcome to our nerdy nerd lives what we do out here, but We really really appreciate you all.
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