Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate next week, but some of The View‘s cohosts feel sure they already know who’ll join the ticket: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Why? Electoral college map math, of course!
On Friday’s (August 2) live episode, the hosts got into the subject of vice presidential picks on both sides of the political aisle, and it became a bit of civics instruction towards the end of the chat.
The conversation began with a review of footage of Trump’s disastrous NABJ interview in which he was asked about whether he regrets his choice of JD Vance after so many negative headlines, to which Trump insisted a VP choice “does not have any impact” on voters’ decisions.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump official herself, insisted that was completely false: “He arguably won in 2016 because Mike Pence helped boost him with evangelicals,” she maintained. “He needed to be someone with even the slightest bit of appeal with moderates and independents, and he did not do that with JD… He’s the first VP nominee to have a net negative favorability rating coming out of the convention.”
Sara Haines then praised Harris for considering moderate Democrats only in her veepstakes search, calling it “a brilliant move” and adding, “When you look at the voting population, that’s actually where the majority of Americans lie.” Conversely, Haines noted, Trump’s decision to bring JD Vance onto the RNC’s ticket was “picking someone more extreme than him.”
Ana Navarro then teased, “I think that if JD Vance was one of Trump’s wives, he would have already cheated on him because he has been a disaster from the get-go.” She then offered that Harris’ objective now should be to select someone that “doesn’t hurt” her campaign.
For Sunny Hostin‘s part, she was most troubled by the portion of the interview in which Trump declined to directly answer whether JD Vance is prepared to step in at any moment, saying, “that should scare Republicans.”
When Griffin then suggested that Harris is likely to pick “someone like a Josh Shapiro” for tactical reasons above Tim Walz, whose home state of Minnesota Harris is already well suited to win “outright,” Joy Behar disagreed. “Historically, it doesn’t really make a difference,” Behar said. “A lot of people are saying, ‘Oh pick Shapiro because then you’ll win Pennsylvania.’ That doesn’t make sense.”
Griffin then countered to reason out exactly why it does make sense, saying, “Shapiro is more popular than Biden, Trump, and Harris in Pennsylvania.”
Haines then backed her up, saying, “Historically, when you have a very popular figure from a certain state, it’s not a guarantee, but you are definitely playing your cards right.”
When Behar continued to express confusion over why Pennsylvania was such a point of interest for Harris, Hostin explained, “If Kamala Harris gets Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, she wins. She just needs those three.” She is referring, of course, to the fact that the so-called Rust Belt is a group of swing states who electoral college votes will likely be determinative.
“She’s doing well in Michigan and Wisconsin,” Griffin added. “Pennsylvania is where she needs to make up some ground.”
“All right,” Behar then sighed. “I stand corrected. What do I know?!”
TRUMP SAYS VP HAS ‘VIRTUALLY NO IMPACT’ ON ELECTION: After the former president’s comment at the NABJ annual convention, #TheView co-hosts weigh in as Vice Pres. Kamala Harris prepares to announce her running mate. pic.twitter.com/nAUVbfz8cj
— The View (@TheView) August 2, 2024
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