Harris VP pick proves boon for Biden fundraising

The Yahoo Finance panel discusses the Biden campaigns blockbuster day as they see the biggest 'grassroots' fundraising day ever after announcing Kamala Harris as VP pick.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Well, we spoke to former treasury secretary Larry Summers last hour, and he said President Trump is the worst of America's 45 presidents. We might be getting another one next time around. Joe Biden hopes it's him. In the wake of him picking Kamala Harris as his running mate, he raised $26 million in the 24 hours following the announcement. The two spoke together, and Kamala Harris talked about a different path from President Trump.

KAMALA HARRIS: We're reeling from the worst public health crisis in a century. The president's mismanagement of the pandemic has plunged us into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

JULIE HYMAN: Our Rick Newman is joining us now. So you know, there's a lot of talk always that the vice presidential pick doesn't matter that much, but the campaign now has $26 million more to play with, as-- seemingly, directly as a result of that pick.

RICK NEWMAN: Yes, and Kamala Harris could help bring in some additional funding. She's actually a pretty good fundraiser from a few campaigns she ran in the state of California and then her senatorial campaign. She's plugged into a lot of donors in California. And Biden has been only a so-so fundraiser, so she might help in that regard.

She also appealed when she did have her own presidential campaign. She did appeal to some Wall Street types because while she is a little bit to the left of center, let's say, she is not Bernie Sanders. She's not Elizabeth Warren. She actually has been pretty cozy with tech firms in Silicon Valley, for example, which is where she comes from.

So I think the business community feels like they can live with her. She is part of the establishment. I think that's how they see her, and that could help with her fundraising. So I think the Biden-Harris launch, it's only about two days old, at this point. But it's gone smoothly so far for them.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Rick, what's going to happen to their fundraising efforts if the opposition gets traction by continually pointing out that she attacked Joe Biden on his stances in the past, regarding, for instance, school bussing? They haven't addressed that yet, and that was a pretty tough attack she had during the debates.

RICK NEWMAN: Well, the attacks on Kamala Harris and that exact issue, they began about the very second Joe Biden tweeted that she was his pick two days ago. So the Trump campaign has been going after all of this. Remember, Trump said, she was nasty. He used that word nasty to describe the way she treated Joe Biden in that one debate. So I mean, that's just something the campaign has to deal with.

This is actually not unusual for presidential campaigns. I mean, a lot of times, the eventual nominee does pick somebody he or she competed against during the primaries. And you know, you always have to deal with this criticism from the past. So it's going to be a small issue. I think we're going to hear the soundbites from that debate popping up in Trump ads.

In terms of fundraising, I don't think it's going to hurt. And I just checked the numbers before the show, and Biden's actually a little bit ahead of Trump, when you include everything that's going to his campaign committee but also the outside spending, the superPACs. And there is going to be a ton of money spent on this race, and I think the Democrats are probably going to have no trouble generating as much fundraising as they need, simply because opposition to Trump is very strong.

JULIE HYMAN: Rick, just quickly, what do we know so far about Joe Biden's economic policy and plans?

RICK NEWMAN: It's changed a little bit since he ran in the primaries. He positioned himself, of course, as a moderate. He said he does not want to eliminate private insurance and go for Medicare For All. He does want to raise taxes, but not as much as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren would have. So he does have some tax hikes.

I mean, we've been talking about this a lot. But just to remind people, he does want to raise-- to put the top income tax rate back to where it was before President Trump lowered it in 2017. So it used to be at 39.6%. Trump lowered it to 37%. Biden would push it back to 39.6%.

He would also tax capital gains at that higher 39.6% rate for high-income people, and he'd raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. Now, Trump cut it. It was all the way up to 35%. Trump cut it down to 21%. Biden says he'd put it back up to 28%, and then he'd use that money to fund more generous college grants for people and some other things.

That would all have to get through Congress. So this is why a big question is not just will Biden win, but will Democrats take control of the Congress? So there are two things investors really have to pay attention to in the next few months.

JULIE HYMAN: Yes there are, amongst many others. Rick Newman, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

RICK NEWMAN: [INAUDIBLE]