Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reportedly offered New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) the vice presidential spot, but then took it back, the New York Post reported Sunday.
{mosads}The publication said the GOP nominee hadn’t decided whom he was going to choose as his running mate with a week left before the Republican National Convention in July.
He had narrowed the choice to Christie, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R).
The GOP nominee’s advisers and members of his family reportedly wanted Trump to choose Pence as his running mate — the decision he ultimately ended up making.
On July 12, the New Jersey governor contacted Trump to try to win the spot, according to the Post.
“Trump cares about who’s the most loyal and who kisses his a– the most, not who’s the most qualified and what’s the best political decision,” a source close to the campaign told the New York Post.
“If it was up to him, it would have been Christie.”
A second source told the publication that Christie thinks “he deserves it and he earned it.”
Christie “said all the BS that Trump likes to hear, and Trump said, ‘Yeah, sure I’m giving it to you,’ ” the second source told the newspaper.
Then Trump’s campaign chairman at the time, Paul Manafort, arranged for the GOP nominee to meet with Pence in Indianapolis on July 13. He then told Trump his plane was having mechanical problems so the GOP nominee had to stay in town another night.
Pence used the time to try to win the spot, while Trump’s advisers warned the issues Christie would bring with the Bridgegate controversy would destroy the GOP nominee’s presidential campaign.
“Trump had wanted Christie but Bridgegate would have been the biggest national story,” a third Trump source said. “He’d lose the advantage of not being corrupt.”