Who will be Joe Biden's running mate?

Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman and Alexis Christoforous discuss who may Joe Biden's running mate may be in the 2020 election and more.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: As the nation wrestles with protests and the pandemic, we also have primaries in eight states and Washington DC where Joe Biden is getting closer to clinching the Democratic nomination for president. The big question, who will be pick as his running mate? On this week's "Electionomics" podcast, we spoke to Ted Johnson. He is a Senior Fellow from the Brennan Center for Justice. We asked him about how black voters could be the deciding factor in this year's presidential election.

TED JOHNSON: In political science, we know that usually when white voters are angry, their turnout in election goes up. But black voters when they're angry usually protest or find external ways to exert pressure on the political system and not necessarily run to the polls to create change using the democratic processes available. The other thing in terms of this election, black turnout is probably going to be what determines whether Trump wins or Biden wins. And because we can't assign higher turnout to the current anger that we see, we'll have to look towards maybe Biden's VP selection, maybe the state of the economy, which is usually a good bellwether on whether the incumbent president stays or not as to whether turnout will be high generally and whether turnout will be high among black voters in particular.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: And my co-host, Rick Newman, on this now. So Rick, that was a good conversation we had yesterday with Ted. He just mentioned in that sound clip about Biden's VP. Who do you think that might be at this point? Is it important that it is a woman and a woman of color?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, Biden has said it will be a woman, so the next question is, is it a black or brown woman or a white woman? And this has actually gotten very interesting during the last week in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing. Amy Klobuchar, the Senator from Minnesota, was a leading contender for the Vice Presidential slot, but she is tangentially connected with a case looking into abuse by the same cop involved in the killing of George Floyd on May 25. Now, that case goes all the way back to 2006. Her office declined to prosecute the police officer in that instance, and Klobuchar says she was on her way to the Senate by then.

It was right around the time she was leaving to the Senate. But nonetheless, any whiff of controversy, I think, is disqualifying at this point, especially if it can create confusion about Klobuchar's connection with Minnesota. So I think she's out, and I think Kamala Harris suddenly is the front runner here by a mile because she's a black woman, she's well-known, she would probably add a lot to Biden's campaign, and she might do a Ted Johnson just mentioned, which is help increase black turnout, which would be a net plus for Biden, probably a big net plus.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: There are some also other women of color here. Former Congresswoman Stacey Abrams, also Susan Rice who was part of the Obama administration. You think they have a shot?

RICK NEWMAN: I guess you could say they have an outside shot, but what those people lack is having been elected at the national level. So none of them has been elected to a national office. One exception is Val Demings, she's also under consideration. She is a former member of the House of Representatives. And those candidates are just not as well known as Kamala Harris. She's got very strong name recognition because of her own presidential run last year. So sure, there could be sort of a surprise pick a la Sarah Palin in 2008 who no one had really ever heard of before John McCain tapped her, but that did not work out well. And I think Biden has a fairly simple choice at this point.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, for a deeper look on what we can expect from this presidential election, be sure to check out our podcast "Electionomics." It dropped today. You can check it out anywhere you get your podcasts. And Rick, happy golden anniversary for our podcast. It's our fiftieth podcast today.

RICK NEWMAN: Hard to believe we've talk of that much. Actually, it's not hard to believe at all.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: No. Sorry I didn't buy you anything.

RICK NEWMAN: You know, same. When I see you back at the studio.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Here's to another 50. Thanks a lot, Rick,