Former President Donald Trump held a “get out the vote” rally in Charleston, South Carolina last night, just 10 days before the South Carolina primary. The rally was his second in four days in the state and the event drew thousands of people to hear the former president.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is Trump’s last GOP rival standing and she is also the former governor of South Carolina. While South Carolina is her home state, most polls have Haley trailing Trump by 35 points or more with Trump polling at around 67%.
If Haley loses big in South Carolina, which is looking more certain, Trump’s road to the GOP nomination would be even more probable. That probability has caused many to start asking who the former president will choose as his running mate in 2024.
One person whose name has been floated by Trump himself is Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). It was Haley who appointed Scott to his Senate seat in 2012 when she was governor of the state, but Scott has already endorsed Trump over Haley.
“The only thing I can tell you is that the one thing we need is four more years of President Donald Trump,” Scott said last week. “We were better off under Trump. In order for us to be successful, the one thing I can’t afford to do is take my eye off the ball. The eye on the ball means making sure that President Trump gets four more years.”
Scott was also present at Trump’s rally last night where the former president spoke highly of his potential running mate.
“As y’all probably remember, I recently got engaged, and today is Valentine’s Day,” Scott said during the rally. “But I told my fiancée I have a chance to introduce the next president of the United States.”
Trump had nothing but praise for Scott, who at one time was running for president against Trump as well.
“You’re a much better candidate for me than you were for yourself,” Trump told Scott.
“I called him, I said, ‘You’re a much better candidate for me than you were for yourself.’”
— Donald Trump sorta praises Tim Scott at a South Carolina rally Wednesday night, after someone from the audience shouted that Trump should pick the Republican senator as his running mate pic.twitter.com/Z1cVqbM0Cd
— The Recount (@therecount) February 15, 2024
Trump did not spend a lot of time talking about Haley at the rally, but he did mention her by name, at one point calling her “Tricky Nikki.”
“I’m not a Nikki fan and I’m not a Pelosi fan,” Trump said while stating that he purposefully interchanged their names during a recent interview. “They have something in common: They both stink.”
