A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
We begin with two big questions in the presidential race. First, will President Biden's news conference last night after the NATO summit convince Democrats he's still fit for office?
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I think I'm the best - I know, I believe I'm the best qualified to govern, and I think I'm the best qualified to win. But there are other people who could beat Trump, too, but it's awful hard to start from scratch.
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Biden fielded questions for nearly an hour. He stumbled a few times, like when he said Vice President Trump when he meant to say Vice President Harris. He also acknowledged that in his public appearances, he needs to, quote, "allay fears." And he covered foreign policy issues from Ukraine to Gaza.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, afterwards, three more House Democrats called on Biden to drop out of the race. Other Democrats praised Biden's foreign policy expertise.
PFEIFFER: The second big question in this race is, who will former President Donald Trump choose for his running mate?
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, he's expected to announce his vice presidential pick before the Republican National Convention convenes in Wisconsin on Monday, and that decision could help shape the face of the GOP for many years.
PFEIFFER: Let's talk about the prospects with Alex Conant. He was the communications director for Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential campaign. He's now Republican strategist with the public affairs firm Firehouse Strategies. Morning, Alex.
ALEX CONANT: Good to be with you, Sacha.
PFEIFFER: Would you reel through for us a list of the qualities you think Donald Trump needs from a running mate?
CONANT: Well, I think when he was running in 2016, at this point in the race, he still had to unite Republicans. I think there were a lot of conservatives that were concerned that he wouldn't be conservative enough once he was elected, and so he looked for a mainstream conservative - Mike Pence. The dynamic is very, very different in 2024. Republicans are very unified behind Donald Trump. Conservatives love Donald Trump. And so he doesn't have to feed the party base in the same way that he did eight years ago.
This time, he really, really wants to win. And so I think he's going to look for a vice presidential nominee that could potentially help him win over some of the key voters that he needs, specifically some independent voters, potentially suburban women voters, the voters that he lost in 2020, the reason he's not in the White House now. If he can find a VP who will help him with that voters, I think they'll be very attractive to him.
PFEIFFER: And what about issues like someone who's a good money raiser, someone who could demonstrate discipline, a good debater, loyalty? What about those types of intangibles?
CONANT: Of course. I mean, Donald Trump definitely wants somebody who's going to be loyal. I think everyone that we've talked about that's on the short list is somebody who has shown that they're loyal to him by endorsing him early and campaigning hard for him. Donald Trump is raising a lot of money. That's probably not the most important priority right now. I think he wants somebody who's not going to cause any problems. I often tell people, you want your vice presidential nominee to make news the day they're announced, if there's a vice presidential debate and not on a third day. If they're making news on a third day, that's probably not a good thing.
I think he's going to want somebody who's been very thoroughly vetted. Obviously, some of the names that have been talked about are people who have run for president before and therefore have been very vetted by the National Press Corps. Or they've been elected to the Senate or other statewide office, and so they've had a certain amount of vetting. But absolutely, he wants somebody who's not going to be a distraction, somebody who's not going to cause him problems down the road.
PFEIFFER: Who is high on your list of strong candidates?
CONANT: Well, there's three names that Donald Trump talks about. One is my former boss, Marco Rubio, senator from Florida. In fact, Donald Trump was just with Rubio in Florida earlier this week, where Marco gave a rousing speech to the audience there. J.D. Vance is another one. He's a senator from Ohio, somebody that Donald Trump is close to, that his family is very close to. He's a movement conservative. I think it would make a lot of MAGA fans very happy. And then Governor Burgum, who I think is a bit of a dark horse at this point, but he ran his own campaign for president. He's the governor of North Dakota - much less of a known quantity, but somebody who I think could bring some of his own financial resources to the campaign and somebody that Donald Trump appears to like quite a bit.
PFEIFFER: In an ideal world, would Trump first want to know if Biden is dropping out before he picks a running mate because who his Democratic opponent is might shape his decision about whom to pick as VP?
CONANT: I suppose. I mean, look, I think Donald Trump's going to have to make the decision sometime in the next 72 hours at the most, probably even before then. You know, I think he'll probably want to make it tomorrow or the next day and let the world know. And I think it's unlikely we'll know the outcome, the fate of Biden's candidacy before then. Again, whether it's Biden or Harris or somebody else, I think Donald Trump is going to have to run his own campaign, and his own campaign targeting independent voters and suburban swing voters, many of whom voted for him in 2016 but then lost confidence in him in 2020. He needs to win back those voters. And so I think he's going to want to signal - a pick who is stable, who seems reasonable, who they would have confidence in stepping up to be president.
PFEIFFER: And what will his pick say about the future of the Republican Party?
CONANT: That's a great question. I mean, I think this pick is so unusual, because if he's elected, he will obviously only be able to serve one additional term. And I think his vice presidential nominee, you have to assume, will be the front-runner for 2028. And so whoever he picks now, I think, will likely be the front-runner in 2028, says a lot about where the party might go in a post-Trump era.
PFEIFFER: Really quickly, maybe 15 seconds, do you think Biden's debate performance is playing into what Trump is thinking about his choice?
CONANT: Yeah, I think he's emboldened, which means he may pick somebody who he really likes, somebody who he's close to as opposed to somebody who brings some real special electoral advantage, simply because he thinks he's going to win no matter who he picks for VP.
PFEIFFER: Republican strategist Alex Conant. Thank you.
CONANT: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
