The Chris Cuomo Project - Why The VP Pick Could Actually Matter In 2024

Episode Date: April 11, 2024

Chris Cuomo delves into the critical significance of Vice Presidential picks for the 2024 presidential election, shedding light on how choices such as Kamala Harris as Biden's running mate, Nicole Shanahan as RFK Jr.'s VP choice, and the yet-to-be-revealed pick for Trump could sway voter opinions and ultimately determine the outcome of the race. With insights into the evolving political landscape, Cuomo uncovers the surprising influence of these selections on electoral success in 2024 and offers up potential game-changing picks that could reshape the race. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's the biggest factor in determining who wins this upcoming presidential election? Here's a twist. It's the VP choice of each of the people running. That may matter most. Okay? And here's a little tidbit for you. Biden has a female VP choice, right? Kamala Harris.

Bobby Kennedy Jr. just picked Shanahan, right? So he has a female. As a result, the chance that Trump picks a female, I bet you goes up considerably. Now, I think Trump should pick a female anyway, and I'm gonna tell you who I think it should be, but the big thing to understand about all this is, well, why? The VP-like never matters.

Ah, ordinarily it doesn't because we don't have the same kinds of questions about the primary candidate for president ordinarily. Now with Bobby Kennedy Jr., is there a little bit of a health issue? Maybe because of the nerve disease that he deals with with his voice, but we don't know anything about his health that would make us, you know,

queasy or worried about it. And everybody saw him with his shirt off, lifting weights, and he seems plenty vital and he's, you know, whatever in his sixties. I mean, he's, you know, he's certainly in his power band. However, however, however, he's the dark horse, right? Could be a spoiler, really. And the closer we get to the race, the more it looks like that, that he's got Ross Perot written all over him. All right. And you can Google who Ross Perot was. And look, I've talked about him in other videos

that you can look up about who wins and why they win. But when it comes to Trump and it comes to Biden, they are old. Now you can roll your eyes and say, no, Biden's, look, they're both past prime. And by the way, the reason seven out of 10 of you don't want either Trump or Biden, okay? That's the whole story. We've never had a gross negative like that

on both major candidates running. Seven out of 10 of you don't want either. Now with Trump, there's a huge list of reasons why a lot of people don't like him. With Biden, his age is front and center. And I think it's not just age, it's age and stage. So now it takes me into the meat of the analysis of why the VP pick matters so much this time and what we're going to be looking for and a shocker on what really may determine the outcome if someone were to choose to change their current VP choice. I'm Chris Cuomo. Thank you very much for being at The Chris Cuomo Project and subscribing and following

always. Thank you. But Trump's going to pick a woman now. He should have anyway. Right? Why? Balance the ticket. Balance the ticket.

Oh, you're playing a PC. No. Over 50% of your population is female. Okay? And he's got big female issues. All right? Now I'm not talking about his lawsuits and his habits and his personal, you know, whatever, peccadilloes.

Let's put all that to the side. He's got real issues because of reproductive rights. He's got real issues because of him seeming skeevy to a lot of women. So the best way to offset that is with a woman. So you combine the fact that he is old, a little past prime, a little kooky, right? Could get impeached again. You're right. There certainly could be uncertainty. So his pick becomes really important.

I think he should have been looking a lot more seriously at Nikki Haley. There's a reason she outpaced the rest of the field. Now people automatically roll their eyes when I suggest her, and it's interesting to me because I'm fine with you saying it's not gonna be her. I just don't agree with the reasoning that I hear most often.

The first one is, oh no, no, no, Trumpers be her. I just don't agree with the reasoning that I hear most often. The first one is, oh no, no, no, Trumpers hate her. He already has the Trumpers. They're not gonna leave him because they don't like his VP pick, right? But she does help him with people that he needs. The other eye roll I get is, oh, she'll never do that. Says who?

She's changed what she wants to be about a couple of times in this process already. Who turns down the VP? It's almost a shoe-in for her to be front and center the next time around. Okay? So I don't know why it's not going to be her. There's a long list of names and I'm not getting into the poker playing or the odds making on who it's going to be, but it really should be a woman. And Bobby Kennedy Jr. picking one and Joe Biden having one as VP, I think makes it more likely. And certainly his VP pick matters because people are going to want someone legit. And I don't know who else he's looking at. People talk about the governor of Arkansas, Huckabee Sanders, but I don't think

she stacks up with Nikki Haley. I mean, she's a new governor. She's not the most telegenic. Is she relatable to Trump land? Yeah, but I don't think she expands the palette the way Nikki Haley does. So that takes us to Bobby Kennedy's choice. Gotta tell you, not feeling it for him. Why? What does she do for him?

Money. Now he told me on my show at News Nation that he would have picked her anyway even if she didn't have all that cake from her ex-husband who was like the internet guru guy. And I gave him the eye roll on that one because I think the money's got to be part of it. He's desperate to get on ballots even with his pack. He's going to be lucky to get on like a dozen of the key states. That will be enough for him to be a spoiler, but not to win. That's a really important question. If you don't get on enough ballots to win, then you are necessarily a spoiler. He has to deal with

that. Now, he picked somebody who does not broadly expand him, but he doesn't really need it as much. Joe Biden, Donald Trump, they need it bigly. Now I know if you look up online, the significance of VP choices, you don't find a lot of data because people don't usually even care if they can even name them. And they're usually just ghosts.

Although I will say, although I like Senator Kaine out of Virginia, Tim Kaine, it was a little weird that Hillary Clinton picked him. I thought that she was going to go for somebody who meant a lot more to the party at that time. And I think it might've helped her in her race against Trump to offset how she checked like every box of establishment animus that there is. Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from Z-Biotics. Let me tell you something, we all know the deal. Sure, I'll have one more. Oh, that's a nice spicy margarita.

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And I thank ZBiotics for sponsoring this episode and your good times. Joe Biden, the president is in a pickle, okay? One, he does not believe the criticism about him. Now, let's think about this for a second. People have to realize their limitations. We know this in life, right? When people are saying something about you a lot, and you are in a position of seeking their approval, you have to think about it. Joe Biden can feel all day long, no, I still got it. I'm still on my game. This is all exaggerated. This is all bullshit. I'm in charge. And by the way, the people I talk

to who are close to him say the idea that he is disconnected from the daily doings and the planning is complete BS. Now, you don't have to believe me. I'm just telling you, people who I know well, who have no reason to lie to me, that are close to him say that's exaggerated. Now, is he a gaffe machine? Is he off his game? Does he have the energy and the bandwidth that you would want in a president? Ideally, I get why your default answer is no, because I see it in the polls. Now, as the president likes to say, don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative. And that's Trump.

And that's why so many of you are still going to pick Biden, because you think Trump is a fill in the blank, horrible description, right? I've never seen a guy liked more unconditionally and disliked more unconditionally than Donald Trump. Very polarizing. Back to Biden. The real compounding of his concern is his VP choice. The real compounding of his concern is his VP choice. I'm not bashing Kamala Harris. That's not what this is about. It's that when you have this predicament that people are worried that Biden may not make it

through the next term, God forbid, I hope he does. I hope he lives to be 100. That's not the point. His VP choice becomes an even bigger deal. And I have been very shocked about two things. Most shocked is that Biden and his administration are not doing something about the southern border. I don't understand why they are handing what is now the most important issue in the form of a big bat to Donald Trump to beat them over the head with it.

I don't get it. I don't get why he's not showing that he wants to do more. Oh, it's on the Republicans. They wouldn't do a deal. That's not going to cut it at the end of the day. You got to keep them safe, stupid. Remember it used to be it's the economy, stupid. Now it's you got to keep them safe, stupid. Remember it used to be it's the economy, stupid. Now it's you gotta keep them safe, stupid.

And people rightly or wrongly, and I believe mostly rightly, believe that the southern border is now a security concern. And it's just a metaphor for the madness of government misfeasance, if not malfeasance. Misfeasance is you stink at your job. Malfeasance is you did this shit on purpose and you stink at your job as a result. Kamala Harris gets him nothing.

She does not expand the palette. She is not a magic bullet with black voters. We saw that in the primary. Biden wiped her up in the primary and that was with her playing, you know, arguably with Cory Booker, but I would still give Kamala Harris the edge as the most overtly hardline attack on Biden for being a racist in that primary. And it still didn't resonate with black voters, not that calling someone a racist should, but that was obviously the play and it didn't work. There are so many independents and people who are still thinking about what to do, who might vote for Biden if he had a different VP pick. How about this one? Ready? It's not going

to happen, I know, but that's only because the two-party game is poison. It's the only reason. And they may not match up, but I'm saying the reason it can't happen is because the two party game is poison. It's the only reason. And they may not match up, but I'm saying the reason it can't happen is because the party system is poison and they're about tribes now. Joe Biden for president, Nikki Haley, vice president. Imagine that, imagine that.

Now my original suggestion was gonna be Mitt Romney, Vice President. But I don't think he's gotten hit with the stick of being a rhino so hard for so long now that I don't know that he really gets Biden anything anymore. He should, by the way. I think the guy is an incredibly competent leader, but that doesn't matter. Imagine if Biden switched from Harris to Haley. Now, would that make his party go crazy

because of her reproductive rights issues? Yeah, probably, but just pull it out of context for a second, okay? Just pull it out. Everywhere else in life, you make compromises and accommodations in the interest of progress, okay? Think about it, diet, parenting, what you do at work, what you do with your partner and coupling

and your wife or your husband or whatever you got in your life, your girlfriend or boyfriend, whatever. Everything's about compromise except our politics. And that's the place that was supposed to be all about compromise. That is until the two party system took us into this poison land where opposition is a legitimate position.

But if Joe Biden were to switch his VP pick, I think that it could be the game changer because there are a lot of people who won't vote for him who might if he had a different person in the wings. Now for Trump, I think the chance is more likely now that he's going to pick a female, and that's a good thing. It's half the population. Why not have it be half the ticket? His real problem is going to be not finding his VP, it's going to be finding his cabinet. I think Bobby Kennedy Jr. has a similar problem, though not as extreme as Trump. Would you work for Trump? I mean, even the shine of the suggestion of the solicitation, come be the Secretary of Commerce,

serve your country. What a huge, powerful platform. But people have all seen what happened the first time. And he destroys your reputation. Almost no one made it out alive of his administration. So I think he's gonna have a real problem finding people who are reputable. I don't buy this idea that Trump is a threat to the democracy by design. Like that's what he wants to do. I don't believe he's a man of vision. I don't believe he's a man of strategy or even

really of tactics, except the obvious sell, which takes you to sell in the Bible with the constitution and the declaration of independence and the Bill of Rights. A friend of mine was saying, doesn't he get separation of church and state? And I was like, don't you get the Constitution? This has nothing to do with the Constitution. It's not that it's illegal. It's just so crass. It's so obvious a pitch. Who sells Bibles?

Who does that? Let alone a guy who doesn't even know what's in it. You ever hear him talk about what's in the Bible? You ever see that clip of him? Come on. But if Trump picks a VP candidate that expands his palette and eases concerns of women and makes some people feel that this pick may absolutely help control him. Now that's a stretch, but his VP pick is gonna matter. He's gonna be in trouble, people want stability, Pence was a zero, you need to do better this time.

He doesn't need the evangelical help the way he did last time. They've just completely forgotten everything that's in the good book that they're supposed to live by and they become a political action group like every other. You give them their judges and their policies, they don't care what kind of person you are. Really ironic. If Biden were to change his VP pick, it could change his fate. That and the border are the two huge question marks for Biden. Is he going to change it? I don't see any indication.

I think he's got what they call paralysis by analysis. The people around him worried about what happens, but they see how the numbers are trending. Nothing changes if nothing changes. Okay. Bobby Kennedy made his pick. It's a woman. She's got money. I don't think it does anything more for him than that. And I think it's brought him scrutiny that he didn't need and has got the libertarian party and he needs their line to help him get on the ballots where he has to get on to be, you know, even have a real chance if he stays in. They're kind of shaking their head and like, how is she a libertarian? What does she do for us?

The key to this election may not be who's running for president. It's who's running for vice president with them. Remember I said that because it's going to loom large. I'm Chris Cuomo. Thank you for subscribing and following here at the Chris Cuomo Project. Now, you want this ad free? You wanna talk to me about Long COVID and find out what I'm doing to get through it

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