Adam Goodman, partner at Ballard Partners, joined Brittany Lewis on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss potential VP picks for former President Trump.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 So now let's talk about the Veep Stakes. Donald Trump threw out a slew of names last night. He
00:05 said names like Representatives Elise Stefanik, J.D. Vance, his HUD Secretary Ben Carson. He also
00:11 mentioned Senator Marco Rubio. Other names that have been floated are North Dakota Governor Doug
00:16 Burgum, as well as Senator Tim Scott. What do you make of this list? Well, first of all, let's talk
00:22 about what you do when you approach a VP pick. Number one is, number one rule, it's a commandment.
00:28 Thou shalt not do harm. Right. So you pick someone that won't hurt the ticket, as opposed to what you
00:35 hope for beyond that is maybe could help. You go back in history, you look at Lyndon Johnson,
00:41 I think was a big help to JFK in winning parts of the South. Nixon and his experience, I think,
00:46 was very helpful on the ticket when he was running as the vice presidential nominee. Al Gore, Dick
00:53 Cheney all added something to the ticket. On the opposite side of that, you had the horrors of
00:59 Thomas Eagleton, who had gone through psychotherapy and was dropped from the ticket with McGovern,
01:05 who ended up losing, of course, miserably in that campaign. Dan Quayle, who wasn't ready for prime
01:10 time. Sarah Palin, who was still trying to tell us that Russia was on her doorstep and to watch out.
01:16 So it's do no harm. But then you have the other things, Brittany. Does it check a box like gender,
01:24 like a Jared Lee Ferraro did diversity, Kamala Harris, a swing state that could be pivotal,
01:30 like Paul Ryan when he ran with Mitt Romney? Does this pick bring maybe energy and freshness to the
01:37 ticket? You go back in history, take a look at Teddy Roosevelt, who came out of New York,
01:42 was McKinley's vice president. And then, of course, very quickly after that became president
01:47 of the United States. And it was a kind of a burst of energy that that Teddy Roosevelt brought to
01:53 McKinley. And then, of course, is what we're talking about. It's a speculation game. Put as
01:59 many names into the hopper as you can. And you just mentioned Ben Carson, Elise Stefanik, North
02:05 Carolina Governor Doug Burgum, Senator Tim Scott. All of these could check some of those boxes,
02:12 if not many of those boxes. But I think the serious choices right now and that only Donald
02:18 Trump knows this, but all the disclaimers out front, right, just my views. I think you're
02:22 looking at two or three serious plays right now, and they're going to be looked at and vetted very
02:29 carefully. One is Tom Cotton, the senator from Arkansas, who's very sharp, right on his feet,
02:37 decorated Army veteran, will be no pushover when it comes to foreign policy. He doesn't bring much
02:43 electorally because Arkansas is as red as I think the states get. J.D. Vance, the first term senator
02:50 from Ohio, the Midwest, the Hillbilly elegy, the great Rust Belt story, but at one point
02:57 was not on the Trump bandwagon. Those would come back in a Democratic counter campaign.
03:01 And then I think the one choice, the one choice that really makes a lot of sense on a lot of
03:08 different fronts is Marco Rubio. Yes, they both hail from Florida, but Marco would be an historic
03:13 pick. He'd be the first Hispanic elected on a national ticket. He personifies the American
03:19 dream. His dad was a bartender. His mom was a maid. Solid with the conservative base,
03:24 brings major foreign policy and immigration credibility. And like Tom Cotton and others
03:30 on this list, right on his feet, very sharp and has been vetted. He's run for president before.
03:37 Very big thing, because just when you think you know everything about someone,
03:41 something comes out of nowhere and kind of changes the math. Eagleton would have been an example of
03:48 that back in the past because Marco has stood as a potential nominee of the Republican Party
03:55 for president, went through a lot of vetting by a lot of people. I think what is known is not
04:01 what is known is. And he represents a safer pick, perhaps, than some of the others.
04:06 I want to talk about what boxes you think are most important to Trump when he's looking at a VP pick,
04:14 because is he looking for someone who's just as hardline MAGA like him? Some of his criticisms,
04:20 his legal troubles, as well as he says things that maybe, you know, are less measured than
04:25 others would like. Does he want someone more buttoned up, someone who is more mainstream
04:31 to attract those independents? What are those most important boxes? Your very question gave
04:36 the list of the very things that he and his team will consider. Right. All those any of those
04:41 things could be helpful. Again, the first consideration is make sure that whoever is
04:47 chosen is not going to become an albatross for reasons unknown. That's number one. But
04:54 could he broaden his appeal in terms of gender and diversity with his pick? Yes. Could he broaden his
05:02 the credibility of his foreign foreign policy, domestic policy, depending on his pick? Yes.
05:09 Could he become more attractive electorally in certain parts of the country? Yes. Does he need
05:15 to in terms of winning? Does he need to further reinforce the Republican base? Or is he looking
05:21 at, for instance, suburban America, which has been the biggest swing area geographically in America
05:28 for the last 25 years or more? Does he look at a part of the country? Does he look at one
05:35 particular swing state? Because as most people are predicting, I think fairly, this looks like
05:41 a what could be a very tight election coming down as it has before it go back to 16 to just a handful
05:48 of states. Can one of these nominees make a difference in one or more of those states?
05:53 All of these things would be considered. There is no candidate out there,
05:57 maybe none who will check literally every box. But if you can check one or two or three of those,
06:03 that's a that's a good shot in the arm to Donald Trump's electoral chances in the fall.
06:08 Do you think that the potential VP pick will have the power to persuade never Trumpers to persuade
06:15 independence, to persuade maybe disenfranchised Democrats who aren't happy with Joe Biden to
06:20 maybe hold their nose and vote for Trump? I think it kind of. It's a great question.
06:27 It will reinforce the way a voter will go. Will it be a prime determinant? I don't think so.
06:34 I think Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the main performers. They are the two in the center ring.
06:41 No offense to Kennedy. And the judgments are going to be made on that. Does adding someone
06:47 to Donald Trump's ticket make him a little bit more palatable or electable from those
06:55 who are undecided? I think yes, to some extent. But still, the main show is Donald Trump and the
07:01 main show on the other side of the ledger is Joe Biden. And frankly, one thing that didn't happen,
07:06 Brittany, that a lot of people were surprised about is when President Joe Biden had an
07:12 opportunity to pick a Supreme Court justice. That would have been a propitious time for him to
07:18 consider Kamala Harris, who has plenty of credential to be seriously considered for that.
07:24 And had that happened, Joe Biden might have another running mate that could read, you might
07:30 say, fresh energy into his ticket, which I think he kind of desperately needs. They did not take
07:36 advantage of that. No offense to Kamala Harris, but I don't think that Joe Biden right now is
07:42 benefiting from his vice president in terms of electability. I just don't think that's adding
07:48 the punch that I think that he could use, especially in some of the swing states. So
07:53 that opportunity has come and gone. But for Donald Trump, I think all of these people we've
07:58 talked about, they add something. But ultimately, this is coming down to a choice of A versus B,
08:05 and it doesn't include the two people as much behind A versus B as it does the main players.