Michael Steele says Trump’s VP pick sends a clear message to ‘Republicans like me’: ‘I’m responsible for this’

Former President Donald Trump is sending a clear signal to the Republican Party’s old guard with his selection of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate, former GOP Chairman Michael Steele told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday: You don’t control the party anymore, and you never will again.

It comes as Republicans begin the first day of their nominating convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by formally handing the nomination to Trump.

“What is your reaction to the choice of JD Vance as Trump’s running mate?” Maddow asked.

“You know, in a way, it’s a little surprising to me, Rachel, because of some of the other politics surrounding Trump in terms of the issues that he’s going to have to fight on going forward,” Steele said. In particular, he added, he thinks it would have been a “better political choice” to choose a woman as his running mate — yet potential picks like Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) weren’t even on his final list.

Read also: ‘JD Vance is not a leader’: Trump’s VP nominee under fire for ‘reckless’ comments on shooting

That said, Steele added: “JD, you know, when you think about it … he checks a lot more boxes for Trump. In the sense that, ultimately, when he says jump, he knows how high he’s going to jump. When he says stop, he knows he’s going to stop. When he says go, he knows he’s going to go. And he didn’t have that with Burgum. He didn’t have that with Marco Rubio. He didn’t have that with Tim Scott. He didn’t have that with any of the others. Certainly not with Nikki Haley.”

“So it makes sense that Donald Trump has found a younger version of himself who is championing the MAGA cause,” Steele said. “We are now — and I say this as a member of the Republican Party — the MAGA party. Republicans like me clearly don’t have a place here anymore. So I think this selection marks that transition, in a very profound way, for many Republicans who are going to have to think long and hard, not just about this election, but about where they stand in the future, because Trump has been very clear: I own this business, you don’t. And here are my offspring to make sure that it continues on the path that I want it to.”

Watch the video below or the link here.

Michael Steele analyzes JD Vance’s choicewww.youtube.com