Political Analyst Doug Sloan Discusses Kamala's VP Pick & the 2025 Election on CGTN's The Heat

[Music] kamla Harris has earned the backing of enough State delegates to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination here is what she had to say on a campaign call on Friday we are going to win this election and it is going to take all of us whether it is making calls connecting with our communities engaging online or even talking with people where we go every day well with about two weeks to go before the Democratic National Convention who will Harris pick to solidify the presidential ticket to discuss this and more let's bring in out also in Washington DC Douglas Sloan is principal at the national capital strategy group and Reena Shaw is a political strategist and commentator also right here with us in the studio thanks everyone for being with us Douglas let me start with you kamla Harris has all but sewn up the Democratic Nom nomination just a few formalities to go through now the focus of course as I said turns to who she will pick as her vice presidential running mate there are some names being mentioned right now the two names that are being mentioned Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania and Tim Waltz um there's also speculation about the Arizona senator um Mark Kelly where do you see this heading well Pennsylvania is a key swing state the Democrats are going to have to win in in order to win in November so I'm thinking that the campaign would be leaning toward Shapiro however there is a little push back on Shapiro by some of the more Progressive Wings in the party uh wing of the party because of uh his stance uh on Israel so uh there's some talk about well you know let's maybe try to go with the candidate that's going to uh create the least amount of resistance and go with Governor wall from Minnesota however Minnesota is a thoroughly Blue State uh so uh my bet uh in terms of being a strategy would be to go with chapiro out of Pennsylvania Douglas what are your thoughts on that I mean once the Democratic Convention is over will you one things start settling down and people start asking those tough questions about where you stand on these issues these issues that I mentioned a moment ago uh once as Reena said the wind in her sales is no longer there uh what happen happens then I don't know if that's going to be the case uh when you say once the wind in our sales is no longer there uh we are in August now uh obviously the wi has not left their sales in the past week with $200 million raised and 170,000 uh new volunteers and and uh we're showing a separation of support for her with black voters with young voters and now everyone is talking about the VP pick who is she going to choose for the the BP pick so the dims are doing a massal job at kind of keeping her in the news and and in on the tip of everyone's tongue and you have to remember yeah we're going to go straight into the convention right and then we're in August which is traditionally a kind of dead month for most people many people on vacation but then September early voting starts yeah some of those overseas ballots get sent out they start voting in the second week of September so for all intents and purposes we are in the election in September so we're really on a very condensed schedule here and there really the time really works in her favor to just kind of keep this momentum going straight through the election and into November right douas I want to talk about something that the media is talking a lot about that Trump is talking a lot about and that is kamla Harris's race uh let's listen to what some uh to some of what the former president had to say I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black and now she wants to be known as black so I don't know is she Indian or is she black she has always identified as a blackle I respect either one but she obviously doesn't because she was Indian all the way so Douglas what do you make of this focus on her race on her ethnic background it's Insanity uh this is going back to the Trump Playbook of uh trying to divide people and in in uh making very divisive statements I don't know what is campaign was thinking sending him in front of the National Association of black journalists a bunch of educated journalists that know kamla's background that know all of Trump's dirty tricks from his Playbook kamla is H is a woman from Oakland who grew up in Oakland who attended one of the most if not the most prestigious black historical black universities in the country and pledged the oldest black Greek letter sorority in the country uh so and then spent Summers with her father in Jamaica so she checks more black boxes than most people and to have Trump of all people question her race is not doing anything but growing factors douas I'm going to turn to uh some other issues now let's turn to foreign policy uh you know and how important it will be for kamla Harris to separate herself from uh her current boss's policy especially with those policies that Jackie mentioned a moment ago uh in Gaza I mean this is a conflict that could play a decisive role in the way this election turns out because of Voters in the midwest Muslim voters who are very upset with the manner in which Biden has handled this yeah I think it's important to remember uh and I think that uh this was uh brought up recently that the vice president does not have a decisive role uh in uh what the president president does for the most part if the president makes the decision on you know what his policy going to be uh you know the vice president doesn't say well no I disagree with that and we should go this way it simp but now that she is the candidate will she have to come out and and you know articulate a new policy a different policy it's going to be difficult she's still in the administration she's still the vice president yeah so she definitely will have to walk a tight RPP in that regard but in in so much so that uh she also will have the opportunity uh to and extent to run as a challenger because he has not or will not have to eat all of Joe Biden's policies or baggage in this election so she can run as a challenger against Donald Trump in all of his failed policies during his term because again the vice president is not calling the ball on policy so yes she has a great opportunity here to kind of reformulate her position on Israel and other issues along border and controversies and so on and so forth uh which could help in gender and and uh work towards her favor with uh gaining new voters gaining new support gaining a much broader support than maybe Biden had because of these issues because he's so tied to his initiatives regarding Israel on the border so she really has in my opinion she has a great opportunity to kind of separate herself and find new support with a new policy but but yes she's definitely going to have to walk a tight rope in that regard because she still is Vice President of the United States okay that's where we have to leave it thank you to all of you for being with us that's it for this Edition off the heat I'm Arnold Naidu in Washington DC [Music] [Applause]