This Is The 'Smart Choice' For Trump's VP Pick: Mark Penn

7 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," legendary pollster and founder and CEO of Stagwell Inc. Mark Penn discussed former President Trump's VP choices.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00 Let's now move to the veep stakes here. Donald Trump floated some potential names last week to a reporter.

00:06 He mentioned people like his HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Representatives J.D. Vance and Elise Stefanik, as well as Senator Marco Rubio.

00:14 Other names that have been floated are North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, as well as Senator Tim Scott.

00:20 Who do voters want to be his running mate, according to your poll?

00:26 Well, I think Donald Trump has been masterful in this so far. I mean, he is the apprentice king,

00:32 so he knows how to build some mystery and excitement over who's going to be vice president.

00:37 And I think he's doing a good job at that. I think our polling in general shows that if you did Tim Scott or Marco Rubio,

00:46 those probably would be smart choices. Nikki Haley, of course, would be a great choice,

00:52 but she's probably not in the running in either direction.

00:56 There's maybe too much friction there for that to be a credible president, vice presidential choice.

01:03 But I think a choice that he makes that really appeals more to voters in the center will help them.

01:09 And I think if he picks someone too far to the right, that will probably hurt him.

01:13 And I think he knows that. Could the right vice presidential candidate maybe persuade an independent,

01:20 perhaps even a Democrat or an average Trumper to vote for Trump, maybe hold their nose and vote for him,

01:26 knowing that their running mate is more mainstream?

01:30 We always look at these VP choices and how much time goes into them.

01:34 And then with a few exceptions, like I think Sarah Palin was probably a negative choice for McCain.

01:41 Most of the time, they don't make a lot of difference at the end of the day, but they they signal something about the campaign.

01:48 They're a message. Right. When Bill Clinton chose Al Gore, it was a new generation to government.

01:53 So what is he going to who is he going to choose and what message will it send?

01:58 Clearly, I believe the more either candidate reaches out to voters in the middle,

02:03 the more likely they are to succeed with their message.

02:07 Mark, anything in this Harvard Caps Harris poll that we didn't touch on that really stuck out to you that you want to dive into?

02:14 Well, one thing I'd say is that the student protests were received quite negatively by the voters.

02:22 They were very much against them. 70, 80 percent, you know, opposing the protests.

02:29 I think they reflected quite negatively on and on academia and put a spotlight in a negative way on what could be going on at the universities.

02:40 And I think it's going to increase the call for public reform of the universities, how they're approaching things,

02:48 what they're teaching and how they are treating, you know, academic freedom within the right bounds.

02:55 I think all of those things are going to get reexamined. I think the voters really reacted negatively to what happened on the campuses.

This Is The 'Smart Choice' For Trump's VP Pick: Mark Penn

Category

Transcript

Recommended