Democratic strategist Melissa DeRosa joins "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss President Biden's decision to step out of the 2024 presidential race and the likely Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
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00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis with Forbes Breaking News. Joining me now is Melissa DeRosa,
00:07Democratic strategist and former secretary under New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
00:12Melissa, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks so much for having me.
00:16We've lived through a history book in the last 10 days, but I want to talk about the most recent
00:22news that really has people's heads spinning, and that is President Joe Biden dropping out of the
00:272024 race. You heard the news. What's your reaction? You know, I think we talked about
00:34this before. I always think about that Ernest Hemingway quote, how do these things happen
00:38gradually and then suddenly? And we have been talking about it for weeks. I think I was on
00:43your show the day after that disastrous debate. And we had this initial conversation and it sort
00:48of always felt like a fate of company that would never come to a head. And then, you know, I think
00:53in getting covid really tipped it over. Nancy Pelosi outmaneuvered the White House. And here we
00:58are. So it was shocking for about, you know, five minutes. And now it's as if Joe Biden isn't even
01:04in the news cycle anymore and as if he never existed. So it's a crazy time in America.
01:11And now the likely Democratic nominee is Vice President Kamala Harris.
01:16What do you make of that choice as the top of the Democratic ticket?
01:19You know, I wrote a column about this before. I didn't think there was an option.
01:22Right. The idea of an open convention would have been pure mayhem.
01:26There was the practical reality of the war chest could only go to Kamala Harris if she wasn't at
01:32the top of the ticket, elevated the top ticket, they would have lost that $240 million.
01:36And then there's the, you know, look, she's a former federal prosecutor, attorney general,
01:40U.S. senator, and she was elected vice president. And Joe Biden picked her,
01:45you know, presumably because he believed she could take over at a moment's notice. And so
01:51to get around that in the Democratic Party, I always believed was an impossibility.
01:56And I think that's what we've now seen. And so, you know, what I actually found was a little bit
02:02interesting because the Democratic Party isn't known for walking in lockstep the same way that
02:06the Republican Party is, is that you really have seen everyone. All the would be challengers
02:12immediately came out within 12, 18 hours and endorsed her. You saw the grassroots come up
02:17from underneath. She raised over $100 million in the first 30 hours. And now it's like everybody's
02:23ready to go. There's really this coronation around the vice president. And you saw her
02:28raise historic numbers. Eighty one million dollars in the first 24 hours since President Biden
02:34dropped out. There's really this surgence of Gen Z support with her campaign leaning into that
02:40trend. Do you think that this excitement surrounding Harris is going to last
02:45to November and really makes a movement in the battleground states?
02:51You know, we'll see. I think that coming out of the gate, there was always going to be a boomlet.
02:56We were living through this period of time in the media where you had the party, you know,
03:00in massive turmoil. You had the media out with pitchforks and they were chasing Joe Biden off
03:06the stage. And historically, Kamala Harris is not popular. But now she's on the stage and she's
03:12getting her shot. And the way I feel about it is not overly cocky, not overly confident,
03:18but that we are undeniably in a better place today than we were three weeks ago. And so I think that
03:24she's got her chance and now she's got to step up to the plate. And I think the last 48 hours
03:28have proven that she has that ability. There's now on her to sustain the group.
03:32Like I said, it really has been this coronation of Kamala Harris. But if we remember four years
03:39ago when she ran for president in 2020, she dropped out before Iowa even had their caucus.
03:45So do you think what were her biggest mistakes back then? And how does she avoid them now,
03:50especially because she doesn't really have much runway left less than four months out from November?
03:56Well, it's a totally different race, right? Because it back up four years ago, she was
04:00running in a Democratic primary. And so the politics of the Democratic primary were very
04:04different. And the people that you were choosing between were very different. We were living in a
04:08moment when Pete Buttigieg was having, you know, his star moment. You know, Joe Biden was lining
04:14up support in South Carolina. I think she sort of knew that if he was taking off, she wouldn't.
04:18And so this is just a totally different dynamic. I think the way that she is going to win this race
04:23in November is successfully prosecuting the argument for why she is best positioned to keep
04:30the party going in the right direction. And why reversing to a president, Donald Trump, which was
04:37chaos, which was turmoil, which was waking up every morning and, you know, him tweeting at
04:41dictators that it's not something we want to go back to. And this is a fundamentally different
04:46race than it was a month ago. This is no longer grumpier old men in the movie playing out where,
04:52you know, the Democratic Party was so underwhelmed by Joe Biden. No one was enthusiastic to go vote
04:57for him. And so our main objective was not just to win the middle, which is always what campaigns
05:03are about. It was to energize our own base. She's energizing the race so she can keep that going.
05:10I think the VP pick is going to be really critically important for her. Generally speaking,
05:13a VP is sort of irrelevant. But for her, I think it's going to matter a great deal.
05:17And I think this race is going to be about personality, energy, youth and moving the
05:22country forward. And she's going to have to say we don't want to go back. Speaking of personality,
05:27she had a speech yesterday and she positioned herself as the prosecutor running against the
05:32convicted felon, Donald Trump. What do you make of that strategy? You know, I don't know that
05:39Donald Trump's legal issues are going to play much of a role, regardless of how she's trying
05:45to present herself. I know that it energizes the base, but I don't think it wins the middle.
05:49We see that in poll after poll after poll. People are sort of numb to his legal woes. You know,
05:54I think a lot of the country thinks DOJ has been politicized. The FBI has been politicized. That's
05:59something that we see time after time in focus groups. And so I'm not sure that's the right
06:04strategy for her to take. I would, if I were her or if I were advising her, tell her she should be
06:09leaning into her role as a former prosecutor on public safety, on quality of life, on, you know,
06:16taking on the sort of kitchen table issues that matter to American families most, because that's
06:22where I think she could really get the most resonance. And I think it sort of plays against
06:26the soft on time type that Democrats are traditionally viewed to be because she has a life
06:32work where she can point to and say, I walk the walk. And how does she win the middle? How does
06:38she win those swing voters, the undecideds? Because right now the Republican Party is pinning
06:43what they perceive as the failures of the Biden administration onto her as she was his number two.
06:50Absolutely. And, you know, they're going to keep doing it. And the way they should be talking about
06:53this, if I was advising them, is don't see the failures of the Biden administration. It's the
06:57failures of the Biden-Harris administration. You know, she owns inflation. She owns the
07:02migrant issue. He put her in charge theoretically of the border crisis. And so I think what she's
07:07going to have to do is something that is sometimes difficult for running mates, which is she's going
07:12to have to break aside from Joe Biden. She's going to have to say in certain moments, yes,
07:17I was part of the administration. Yes, I supported the president. Of course, this is how I would do
07:21things. This is how I would chart my own course. You know, being a president is different.
07:27And so she's going to have to successfully address those very real issues, which I think the public
07:33will return to after Labor Day. Right. The next few weeks, we're not going to talk about policy.
07:37The next few weeks, it's going to be personality. It's going to be V.P. speculation. It's going to
07:42be the Secret Service head resigning. It's going to be the Democratic Convention. But after Labor
07:47Day, they're going to have to do a debate. And I think there's going to be a real return to the
07:50issues. And that's what she's going to do. Like you said, historically, the V.P. pick doesn't
07:56really matter. It only could hurt a candidate. But now, because I mean, the unprecedented nature
08:02of her likely nomination, how important is that pick? And who is the best choice?
08:08It is so critically important. We need there needs to be balance brought to the ticket.
08:14I you know, this is always the way, but especially right now with Kamala Harris,
08:18who the country hasn't had a real opportunity to get to know in the same way that you would
08:24under traditional presidential. And so I think that helping to bring down the ticket,
08:29helping to be able to deploy someone to other states while you're out doing fundraising and
08:34you're on the stump and you're dealing with incoming from Donald Trump. And, you know,
08:38having that real partnership is really important. I said this weeks ago, I'm going to say it again.
08:42I think Josh Ferro is the right pick. He comes from Pennsylvania that has 20 electoral votes.
08:48You know, there's a lot of speculation about Gabby Gifford's husband, a U.S. senator from
08:52Arizona. Arizona has 11 electoral votes. At the end of the day, this is this is a contest. It's
08:58about math. It's about strategy. And I think that both gentlemen are very well qualified. I think
09:04that Pennsylvania just gives you more mathematically. And I think at this point, as fast as
09:09it may sound, that's how we have to be looking at it. But as we sit here right now, I mean,
09:14we are live to tape. And I want to get this out as fast as possible because the news cycle is
09:18moving so fast. Everything can change. So less than two weeks, we saw two monumental historic
09:25events. Former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt. President Joe Biden
09:30dropped out of the race. Given those the nature of those seismic events, has everything we
09:37fundamentally knew about this race now changed? Absolutely. And to your point, Brittany, it's
09:43exactly what you just said. I mean, the president, former president of the United States, there was
09:47an attempted assassination on his life two weeks ago, less than two weeks ago. And it's
09:52essentially out of the news cycle. And so the thing I keep trying to caution people about,
09:56because there's been so many twists and turns, is we have no idea what's around us. You know,
10:02things could look dramatically different in September than they even look today. Yes,
10:06there's a lot of energy right now. Yes, you got historic numbers. Yes, it feels really good. And
10:11it feels like the wind is returning to get us back. But that could look very, very different
10:16in September. You know, we're living through this. I don't expect that.
10:21And we saw the RNC last week. And in light of President Trump surviving that assassination
10:27attempt, we saw a really united Republican Party. Now it feels, in surrounding Kamala Harris,
10:35that the Democrats are really united. So how does the Democratic Party keep this energy up
10:42past Labor Day, when you're talking about policy, when you're going into the debate
10:46with President Trump? You know, and that's another place where a Josh Shapiro could help.
10:53I am concerned in the back of my mind about the return to college campuses. And if Gaza and
10:59Israel is not worked out, seeing sort of a resurgence of that chaos that we lived through
11:03in the spring. And that's something that's very Democratic Party specific in terms of the
11:08splinter of what happens. And we have to hold the party together. The Republicans have undoubtedly,
11:15we finally got there. So we've got to hold that coalition. And so I think someone like
11:20Josh Shapiro, bringing him to the ticket, who is a Jewish American, who can speak to the Israel
11:25issue in a way that I think sort of fills the gap. Kamala is not perceived by Jewish Democratic
11:30voters to be brave on this issue. She was against going into Raqqa and other things that, you know,
11:35people who are, you know, trying to get out of there really felt passionately about within the
11:40party. And so I think that that also brings some balance there. And so, you know, she's going to
11:44have to make strategic moves like that going into the fall because you don't have that same divide.
11:53And going into between now and the DNC, aside from the VP pick, what are you looking out for?
11:59I want to see if we can continue to sustain the money coming through the door, sustain the energy.
12:05She now is there, right? Now she's got, we've handed her the ball. Can she dribble? Can she
12:10shoot? Can she score? She's going to have to go out and do interviews. She's going to have to
12:15go out and do rallies, going to draw major crowds, and she's got to land some punches. And so that's
12:21what we should all be looking for. If I were them, I would wait until as close to the convention as
12:26possible on the VP choice in order to keep the momentum going and the guessing going in the
12:31news cycle being about that excitement and energy and who's it going to be. But that's what we need
12:35to be looking for. And frankly, I'm interested to see what the Republicans do because I was shocked
12:40at how flat footed they appeared on Sunday. She was chosen. They didn't have a slew of ads ready
12:45to go. You know, they're sort of fumbling around their messaging right now. She has an annoying
12:50laugh. She sounds crazy. Like these are not going to be things that went over the middle, right?
12:58So I think that it's going to be interesting to see sort of how they find their footing on their
13:02attack plans against her and how she really performs because now all eyes are on her.
13:07President Biden really caught a lot of people flat footed on Sunday when he made that announcement
13:12right before 2 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon that he was dropping out of the 2024 race.
13:17And within the 48 hours since, Democrats have really rallied behind Kamala Harris and the
13:23Biden campaign almost feels like a distant memory two days later. So what do you think President
13:29Biden's legacy is going to be? You know, time will tell what Joe Biden's legacy is. I remember
13:34at the end of the Clinton administration, everyone thought forever he would be remembered by Monica
13:38Lewinsky because it was the last major thing that happened in his presidency. And at the end of the
13:42day, I don't you know, people remember that that happened. But I think it's more of a footnote to
13:46his overall time in office. And with Joe Biden, I think in the short term, Joe Biden is going to be
13:52remembered for not getting, you know, not handing the baton over soon enough. Unfortunately,
13:58that's 90 minutes in the debate changing the course of history in this last month.
14:02And, you know, as someone who essentially it appears people in the eyes of the White House
14:07could have engaged in sort of a cover up about this true, you know, health and his social
14:11acuity. And so I thought it was, you know, Nancy Pelosi is the best politician of our lifetime. I
14:19don't say that lightly, the way that she engineered getting him out and also making sure that everyone
14:25praised him on the way out the door and saying, you're a real, you know, incredible American,
14:29you're putting this country over party. I think that they said to him, if you do the right thing
14:35by the end of the day on Sunday, you will get that hero's reading. And so I think at the
14:39convention, you're going to see a lot of that. I would imagine there will be videos and speeches
14:43and saying, you know, the Democratic Party does what the Republican Party doesn't do.
14:47We before ourselves. But I think we would all be kidding ourselves if it's at least
14:53in the short term legacy is painted by what's happened. And as you mentioned, the debate
15:01three weeks ago was the beginning of the end of President Biden's reelection campaign.
15:06How important is a debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump?
15:11I think it's it's funny, because I generally don't think debates matter that much unless
15:16someone scores a major point or somebody, you know, has a major gap. And then we saw
15:21the debate a few weeks ago. And all of a sudden, you know, you're like, okay, debates actually
15:25matter. I think because it's going to be the first time they're on equal footing,
15:30it's going to be incredibly important. You know, the bar was so low before she is a prosecutor,
15:35she was in courtrooms, she was a district attorney. And so I think that, you know,
15:40before you had Joe Biden, who could barely stick a sentence together, and now you're going to have
15:44this very polished, articulate, strong woman who's used to arguing for a living. And what I'm more
15:49interested in is to see whether Donald Trump has to wiggle out of the debate. If he tries to
15:55cancel the September 10, which is the date, I think you're going to see a lot of people saying,
15:59what are you scared of a girl? Like, you know, I think the dynamic is so it's we're in such
16:05uncharted territories. I think if he tries to weasel out of that debate, which I think that's
16:08what we should all be watching for, because I'm sure his advisors are saying you have nothing to
16:12gain there. She has everything to gain and you have everything to lose. But he's going to try
16:17to weasel out. But I think given the fact that he's going up against a woman, it makes him doing
16:22that hard for somebody with an ego. Well, there is certainly a lot to look forward to as we head
16:29into November, as we head into the convention, as we head into really the next day. So Melissa
16:34DeRosa, thank you so much for coming on and breaking it down with me. Thank you for having me, Brittany.