Many of the candidates now vying to be presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's 2024 running mate are now having their loyalty scrutinized, and may have to answer for past statements criticizing the ex-president. According to NBC News , allies of the former president are reckoning with how to assess how committed top Republicans are to the former president now in spite of past disparaging comments. Between the past decade and the past year, nearly all of the potential vice presidential candidates rumored to be on Trump's shortlist have called him everything from "noxious" and "reprehensible," as Sen.
J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) once said of the former president, to a "whack job," as Rep.
Elise Stefanik (R-New York) previously said. "No one’s clean on this," an unnamed Republican close to Trump told NBC. A separate "longtime Trump ally" anonymously told the outlet that despite past criticism, Trump is willing to "look at this more holistically than ever.
" “Everybody’s a sinner in some form or another," the source said. "The only question is whether something’s a mortal sin or not.” Earlier this week, Axios' Mike Allen reported that Stefanik and Vance are finalists to be Trump's 2024 running mate, along with Sens.
Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Tim Scott (R-South Carolina). Others who received vetting paperwork include Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Florida), former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and North Dakota Republican .
