A Grounded Plane and Anti-Clinton Passion: How Mike Pence Swayed the Trumps

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/us/politics/donald-trump-mike-pence.html

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When mechanical problems grounded Donald J. Trump’s private plane on Tuesday night in Indiana, Gov. Mike Pence seized the opportunity.

The jet-setting Mr. Trump had his three oldest children fly to meet him after he was unexpectedly stranded in Indianapolis, so Mr. Pence and his wife hosted the family for breakfast on Wednesday morning at the Tudor-style Governor’s Mansion.

The families were chatting politely over coffee when Mr. Pence, a mild-mannered Midwesterner, delivered an uncharacteristically impassioned monologue, according to people with direct knowledge of his remarks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the meeting.

With the vice presidency potentially hanging in the balance, Mr. Pence described his personal distaste for Hillary Clinton and her husband, the former president, and spoke of feeling disgusted at what he called the corruption of the 1990s.

The monologue appeared to be a success.

Even Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, a trusted adviser who had admired Newt Gingrich, came away swayed, believing that Mr. Pence could gel with the Trump team.

Mr. Pence was not invited to join the Republican ticket that morning. But in a telephone call on Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump gave Mr. Pence a reassuring signal the job was his: “You’re my guy,” Mr. Trump told him, according to a person briefed on the conversation.

Nonetheless, the courtship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence had all the caprices of a young romance. At first, Mr. Pence was standoffish and skeptical — only to become the suitor as the days wore on, fervently pursuing Mr. Trump and the No. 2 slot.

And Mr. Trump’s vice-presidential screening process was unusually public, leaving admirers of Mr. Pence worried that he could end up being spurned or even humiliated. Having beckoned Mr. Pence to New York on Thursday, Mr. Trump nevertheless engaged in a final round of hand-wringing conversations with aides about whether he was ready to become partners with such a new acquaintance.

Yet it was the breakfast gathering — for which Mr. Pence and his wife, Karen, picked fresh flowers — that appeared to have sealed Mr. Trump’s decision, capping a whirlwind three weeks that ended with the coupling of a thrice-married former reality television star known for vulgarity with an old-school Midwestern Republican of deeply conservative Christian faith.

Mr. Pence has neither the élan nor the bravado of Mr. Trump’s other vice-presidential finalists, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Mr. Gingrich. But Mr. Trump, a natural showman, has described Mr. Pence to associates as someone who looks the part, straight out of “central casting” with his clean-cut, silver-haired appearance. And Mr. Pence has admiringly called Mr. Trump “the people’s choice.”

“It is fair to describe the relationship as fairly new and quickly flourishing,” said Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser and pollster to both Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence.

Still, close associates of the candidates say they are not a natural pair. David Kensinger, a Republican strategist in Kansas who has advised Mr. Pence in the past, said the Indiana governor was a privately charming man with a strict filter on the public stage.

“He tends to be very formal in public, and he had a reputation when he was in Congress of being a bit stiff,” Mr. Kensinger said. “Pence is a man of 21st-century ideas and 19th-century manners.”

Only a few weeks ago, the partnership between Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence might have come as a surprise to both men, who had no personal relationship. They have still met with each other only a handful of times.

An early and uncomfortable introduction, in the fall of 2011, came as Mr. Pence was preparing to run for governor and visited Trump Tower to seek a financial contribution from Mr. Trump. At the time, Mr. Trump was fascinated by gossip surrounding the marriage of Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, whose wife had divorced him to be with another man, and then remarried Mr. Daniels several years later.

Mr. Trump declared to Mr. Pence that he would never take back a wife who had been unfaithful, according to the account of a witness. A second person briefed on the meeting described it as an awkward encounter for the strait-laced Mr. Pence.

Michael D. Cohen, a lawyer for Mr. Trump who attended many of his talks with politicians that year, said he did not remember the meeting that way. “Not only do I not recall this topic being discussed,” Mr. Cohen said, “it does not even sound like something Mr. Trump would ever say.”

Mr. Trump sent a check for $2,500 to Mr. Pence’s campaign for governor, but no personal friendship blossomed.

Indeed, when emissaries from the Trump campaign first reached out early this month to gauge Mr. Pence’s interest in the vice presidency, the governor told his political allies that he would meet with Mr. Trump — but only as a courtesy.

Close advisers to Mr. Trump, including Paul Manafort, his campaign chairman, and Ms. Conway, the pollster for both men, were keen on the governor. Mr. Pence was less entranced by the idea.

But when the two men played a round of golf over the Fourth of July weekend at a Trump club in Bedminster, N.J., they began to warm to each other. Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, and Karen Pence came along. And the governor, seemingly sensitive to Mr. Trump’s boastful athletic self-image, later told NBC News that Mr. Trump had “beat me like a drum.”

After golf, the two couples had dinner, and Mr. Trump learned that Charlotte Pence, the governor’s 23-year-old daughter, had accompanied her parents on the trip to New Jersey. Mr. Trump insisted that the foursome have breakfast the next morning with Charlotte, whom he disarmingly peppered with questions about her life.

“The thing I think both of these men have in common is their preferred leisure time is to spend their time with their families,” Ms. Conway said. Mrs. Pence and Mrs. Trump, she added, “connected as mothers.”

Friends noticed a shift after the holiday weekend: Mr. Pence no longer described conversations with the Trump campaign as a pro forma affair. Instead, he advised his allies that a spot on the national ticket, if offered, would be a hard prize to turn down.

There were other signs, too, that the two men might be able to forge a partnership. They met again in April, at the Indiana Governor’s Mansion in advance of the state’s primary contest. The goal for Mr. Trump was to keep Mr. Pence neutral, at minimum, before the vote. (In a cruel irony for Mr. Christie, it was the New Jersey governor, then an adviser to Mr. Trump who had yet to become a rival to Mr. Pence for the vice-presidential nomination, who brokered the meeting.)

The conversation was perfunctory but pleasant, and Mr. Christie told associates afterward that Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence had hit it off. Mr. Pence ultimately endorsed Senator Ted Cruz of Texas shortly before the primary, but he did not lash out at Mr. Trump or question his qualifications for office — a significant point Pence allies would later make.

Mr. Pence impressed in other ways. Mr. Trump and some of his family members were delighted that the governor’s vetting check was completed quickly, with no red flags. For Mr. Trump, whose life has played out on the pages of New York’s tabloids, Mr. Pence’s lack of personal baggage came as a relief.

And the other contenders had problems. The scandal over the shutdown of the George Washington Bridge was potentially hobbling to Mr. Christie; Mr. Gingrich, a self-described “pirate,” had a marital history equally colorful to Mr. Trump’s; Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa was inexperienced and evoked unflattering comparisons to Sarah Palin; Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee had a rough audition with Mr. Trump; and Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama would face scrutiny of his record on race.

On Tuesday, after Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence campaigned together, and Mr. Trump’s plane breakdown left him stranded in Indiana, the unlikely partners had an impromptu dinner at the Capital Grille.

And at some point during the evening, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Pence if he would say yes, were Mr. Trump to offer him the No. 2 slot.

“In a heartbeat,” Mr. Pence replied.