OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former campaign consultant Matthew Dowd is warning President Joe Biden’s campaign ahead of the debate against former President Donald Trump.
During an interview on CNN, Dowd spoke about a new report this week that Trump is choosing only three possible running mates.
Following a video of Trump saying that he had already made up his mind about who he would pick but hadn’t told anyone yet, CNN’s Alayna Treene said she thought he had narrowed down his original list to a much smaller group — Doug Burgum, J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio.
Dowd warned that the “Biden campaign would be foolish” to think that Trump’s VP pick is one of those three names, suggesting that those names could have been put out as a distraction.
Below is a transcript of the exchange, via Grabien:
CARBRERA: “Let’s turn to the Trump veepstakes. Here’s some sound with the former president in Philadelphia that Dasha just referenced.”
[Clip starts]
Reporter: “Will your VP come to the debate?
Trump: “Most likely, yeah. Yeah.”
(…)
Reporter: “Have you decided who your vice president is?”
Trump: “In my mind, yeah.”
Reporter: “Do they know.”
Trump: “No. Nobody knows.”
[Clip ends]
CARBRERA: “So for those who maybe couldn’t hear clearly and couldn’t see the subtitles there, he was asked, will your vice president pick be at the debate? He said, yes, pretty sure they’re going to be there, and that yes, he — he in his mind knows who his VP pick will be. But nobody else knows. NBC News has reported that Trump is zeroing in on Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota, senators J.D. Vance of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida as those possible top contenders. Matthew, anyone stand out on this list, anyone the Biden campaign would need to worry about?”
DOWD: “Well, first, I find it kind of funny that Donald Trump says the vice presidential candidate will be at debate, and we know what he’s going to do. He’s going to unload a bus full of potential people that are all going to clamor by him. So there may be 15 people of elected officials at that debate that he can say that person was there. So I find it kind of funny. I mean, I still believe, Ana, that, that — the Biden campaign would be foolish to think that that’s the list that Donald Trump is ultimately going to pick from. It may be, but I think their campaign process is going to be well, we’ll deal with that when this person comes out. Because I still believe — of those three picks, I still believe that somebody’s not on that list would be a better pick than those three, because you just play their own words, all of those folks own words back to Donald Trump during the course of the campaign, and they’ve said more negative things about Donald Trump than Joe Biden has said about Donald Trump, each of those three people on that list. So I think we all have to just wait and see because as Donald Trump says it’s in his own mind and the mind of Donald Trump is not something easy to fathom. So I still think it could be somebody off that list.”
WATCH:
Reports on Trump’s “VP list” have been all over the place for months.
Other recent reports speculated that Trump’s original VP list included not just the three finalists but Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Tom Cotton (R-AR), as well as Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY).
Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson has also been mentioned.
