Biden expresses doubts about the future of the convention

Joe Biden stated that the coronavirus will have an impact on the Democratic National Convention coming up in the summer. Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous, Brian Sozzi and Rick Newman discuss the details.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: I want to get right to Rick Newman, who continues to follow the race to the presidency. Rick, I almost forgot about this. But it will-- or it's supposed to happen in November. And former Vice President Joe Biden is speaking up.

RICK NEWMAN: [LAUGHS] Yeah. He's still at it. He's got a TV studio in his basement, apparently, and he's doing some interviews. So somebody asked him, what's going to happen to the Democratic Convention. Is this thing actually going to take place? And he said, I doubt it.

And he's speaking the truth. I mean, look, we're-- the Olympics were canceled for right around the same time. You'd be cramming, you know, 50,000 people into an arena and putting them in hotels-- hotel rooms up in Milwaukee. And Biden said, I just don't think that's going to happen. So there are no procedures in the Democratic National Committee for what to do if you can't hold your convention. So they would actually have to develop those procedures, figure out how to do the voting remotely, and things like that. But they are probably just going to have to do it, Brian.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: What about Bernie Sanders, Rick? We haven't heard a lot about him. But he is still in this race, isn't he?

RICK NEWMAN: Yup. He's still in the race. And that actually complicates things a little bit with regard to what the Democrats might do regarding their convention. If-- if Bernie Sanders were out of it and this were a cakewalk for Joe Biden, that would remove concerns about things such as, what if you have to-- what if you don't resolve the nominee-- determine who the nominee is on the first vote? Then that's when you go to that second vote with the superdelegates.

And it's a complicated process, but much easier to do in person than to do it remotely. So with Bernie Sanders still in the race, I mean, and Joe Biden not having a lock on it, the Democrats might have to figure out not only how do we do, you know, the first vote. But what if we don't actually come to a decision on the first vote? Then we have to figure out how to do the second vote. And it just gets more complicated.

Again, this is doable. But let's not forget how badly the Democrats screwed up the Iowa caucus with the technology problems there. So I think there probably are concerns, let's not have another technology fiasco here.

BRIAN SOZZI: Rick, is Joe Biden getting any closer to selecting his-- his running mate?

RICK NEWMAN: Who knows. I mean, I would imagine-- he probably-- my best guess, Brian, is he knows who he wants to ask. I mean, you know, it's a fairly short list of candidates when you say it's going to be a woman and it probably needs to be a prominent woman. So we know the short list.

It's Kamala Harris, the senator from California. It could be Amy Klobuchar, the senator from Minnesota. That might make a little bit more sense, because Minnesota a little bit more in play for Democrats than-- than California is. And there are a couple others. It could be-- it could be somebody we're not expecting.

But, you know, the point of a convention is to-- it's really political theater. And it gets a-- you know, it gets prime time TV coverage. So it's a lot of free publicity for the candidate and one of the-- if they don't have a convention, they're not going to get that free publicity. You know, usually there's a thing known as a convention bump. And once the convention, is over the nominee who is freshly crowned at that point, gets a little rise in the polls.

So in turn, you know, I'm sure that they have to figure out the process for having these votes. But they also have to figure out how to make up for the lost publicity they're going to get. So you'd want to have a big bang with, you know, a flashy vice presidential nominee. But they, you know, are going to have to figure out a different way to do that, too.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Hey, Rick, you know, I know President Trump's approval rating has actually ticked up throughout this pandemic. Do you think, at the end of the day, that this is going to be a referendum on his presidency? And, you know, is it looking more likely or less likely that he may win because of this?

RICK NEWMAN: Absolutely, it's going to be a referendum on Trump. And not-- not so much on his presidency as-- as how well he handles this coronavirus, the pandemic, and also the severe recession we're going to have. This could go in so many different ways, Alexis, as you and I have discussed on our podcast. But I-- you know, it really depends on whether Americans feel like Trump is competent and he is getting the nation through a really difficult time or if he's kind of fumbling around and people really start to struggle, and they don't feel like they're getting any help from Washington. So, you know, voters go both ways on this.

I mean, they kicked out Herbert Hoover in 1932. So they did change horses in midstream. So that old adage, you know, well, you don't-- you're in a crisis, you want to stick with the guy who brought you there. It may be not so true. And one thing about that little bump in approval ratings that Trump got-- that is puny compared to the bump in approval ratings we're seeing in Europe for Boris Johnson in the UK, for Emmanuel Macron in France, and Angela Merkel and Germany, even Justin Trudeau, north of the border in Canada.

They're all getting much bigger increases in their approval ratings than Trump is. In some cases, double digits. And Trump's really is only two or three points at this point. So Americans are kind of not, you know, sure what to make of it yet.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, Rick. I want you to wear that bow tie the next time we do a podcast. OK?

RICK NEWMAN: Sure.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I feel a little slighted, I have to say. You mentioned our podcast. It's called "Electionomics," everybody. I know we have a little more time on our hands now at home. Be sure to check it out at-- at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks a lot, Rick.

RICK NEWMAN: Thanks.