Trump’s vice presidential choice takes on an additional significance in shooting’s aftermath

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A defiant Donald Trump, having just survived an attempted assassination, enters the Republican National Convention having not yet announced his vice presidential pick.

It remains unclear whether the shooting Saturday at his Pennsylvania rally has changed the former president’s thinking about his potential second-in-command. But his choice now carries considerably more gravity. If a bullet had struck just a little bit to the right, Trump likely would have been killed or seriously injured.

The close call puts in stark relief the significance of a position that is a heartbeat away from the presidency. Trump has repeatedly claimed that choosing someone who was qualified to take over as commander in chief was his top consideration for the role.

“You need somebody that can be good just in case, that horrible just in case,” he said in an interview with “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” in May.

Hours before the shooting, in an interview before he boarded his plane from Florida, he told Fox News Channel’s Harris Faulkner, “It’s a very important position, especially if something bad should happen — that’s the most important.”

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