Strategist Lays Out The Two Paths Dems Have For The Election - Could Michelle Obama Be One Of Them?

4 months ago

Democrat Strategist Melissa DeRosa joins Brittany Lewis on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss what options the Democrats have as we approach the Presidential Election.

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Transcript

00:00Get with reality, make a choice, fast.

00:03What are the two choices because you lay out these two very clear paths Democrats are now confronted with?

00:09Well, you know, last time we talked on Friday, we were talking about how all this fantasy football was going on.

00:15Michelle Obama, Gavin Newsom, you know, who could it potentially be?

00:18Maybe somebody we're not thinking of, Leon Panetta, whoever.

00:22But, you know, five days later, the smoke has cleared.

00:25There are two paths, and there's two reasons why there's two paths.

00:28One is the Obama, I'm sorry, the Biden-Harris campaign has $240 million in the bank.

00:35Campaign finance rules make it so that that money cannot be transferred.

00:39So if someone other than Biden or Harris are at the top of that ticket, it's like you're setting that money on fire.

00:47You can't transfer it to anyone. You're starting from literally zero.

00:51So that very practical reality has to play a role in this conversation.

00:56Two, the polling numbers that have come out in the last several days have actually shown in head-to-heads

01:01that Harris is best positioned to go against Trump, even when you consider Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, a Pete Buttigieg.

01:11And so when you have those two things that are staring you in the face, coupled with the fact that the Democratic Party,

01:19Big Ten Party, we value women, we value minorities, we like to lift people up,

01:24how we could possibly circumvent the first ever black female vice president,

01:29given that she's pulling stronger than the others, and given that you lose $240 million.

01:34Your options are clear. Either you stick with Joe Biden and pray to God that Donald Trump implodes

01:40and that Joe Biden plays error-proof ball and he goes out and he sits with the New York Times

01:45and he sits with 60 Minutes and he does unscripted events and he stops speaking just to teleprompters

01:51and that somehow, you know, everything comes together in a perfect storm for him,

01:56which is highly unlikely but could happen. Or you switch horses and you go to Kamala Harris.

02:02She keeps the money. She gets elevated to the top of the ticket.

02:06She gets to pick a new VP, which I suggest to Josh Shapiro, who is governor of Pennsylvania.

02:12So you get, you know, potentially pick up a swing state with those politics.

02:16And you hope that the energy of this historic nomination carries you through to the finish line.

02:21But I do not see anyone else as a viable alternative at this point.

02:25So let's just get this straight. You just want to squash the rumors of the Michelle Obama fantasy.

02:31I mean, she herself has said she's not getting back into politics.

02:34The Gavin Newsom, the Gretchen Whitmer, this is fantasy and Democrats either have Biden or Harris and that's it.

02:42That's right. And we shouldn't. We have 35 days. The deadline is not the convention.

02:46The deadline is the Ohio presidential ballot certification, which takes place on August 7th.

02:52There's a quirk in the law. It happens in advance of the convention.

02:55So really, we're staring at August 7th, which means as of today, we have 35 days to figure this out.

03:02And every day that we waste spinning around, talking about these unrealistic options

03:07and flailing about sort of blaming one another and reading these stories in the press,

03:12leaked stories about where everybody is, is another day that favors Donald Trump.

03:18And ultimately, if the goal of the party is to keep the country and keep going on a certain trajectory,

03:24then we've got to get our act together quickly.

Strategist Lays Out The Two Paths Dems Have For The Election - Could Michelle Obama Be One Of Them?

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