Thanks to the Meridian International center for hosting , for even during these difficult times, when we cannot be together, as you mentioned, this is my 11th president ial campaign i have covered it i have never embarked on one like we have now. That will make it a rich panel. We have to have the most highly respected former governors, the former twoterm governor of ohio, nine term member of the house of representatives, when i met him, he was chairing the House Budget Committee and had a welfare in wel reform, in balancing the budget. Twice, in president , 2016, and the last time around, he was the last man standing against donald trump for the republican nomination. We are also so glad to be joined by terry, the former governor of virginia. He was chair of the Democratic National committee, he was cochair of bill clintons president ial campaign in 1996. Of hillaryr clintons president ial campaign in 2008, and last year, he considered a president ial bit of his own for the democratic nomination. He started his First Business at mcauliffe 14, called driveway maintenance, and he had some success in the years that businesswith other sectors. Governor kasich, governor mcauliffe, welcome. Mr. Mcauliffe thank you. Susan the hope of having a conversation, there is a poll that we asked our audience, the participants, and we will keep that up for a while. We will show the results of that in a bit. You can also submit questions, willen questions, that i ask later in the program. You can ask them with your name attached to them or anonymously. Lets start with this question. This coronavirus has changed so much about our country could how is it going to change the issues that are going to matter the most in this president ial campaign, and who is advantaged by that change . Governor kasich, lets start with the . You. Mr. Kasich well, obviously right now, everybody is going to watch how the president is going to handle this all the way through to its conclusion, at i wasd of it gov. Whitmer, you, thinking back yesterday, when george bush had a 90 Approval Rating after the end of the iraq war, but the economy was not doing very welcome and it was interesting that bill clinton understood it was all about the economy, so i think in this it mattered about how he was projecting his leadership, and we will get through this at some point, but come november, the question may be more about how the Economic Situation than it is the virus. Tohink what is really going be important Going Forward, and i know that terry is intermittently intimately involved with bidens campaign, is how does joe biden project himself as a leader for at least the next four years . How is he able to talk about, not just the situation, but any situation that can arrive, economic, something involving a military conflict. I think it will be incumbent on joe to be able to show that he has the leadership ability, and , it isink, right now about the virus, later on, it is going to be about the pocketbook. It always seems to come down to the pocketbook, and every election, at least it did my firston election as governor. Mr. Mcauliffe it will be about the virus, how did President Trump handle it, and they will be a discussion in january and february, did the president do everything he needed to do . Did he effectively get the ventilators, the personal protective gear out, the masks, did the federal government do everything it needed to do . And the next question, and i do not think we are there yet, because everyone is still trying to get masks and so forth, overlaid into the coronavirus, as we get into ope october, and i agree with john, it will be all about the economy. None of us sitting here today no what is going to be happening. 25 Million People are out of work. How long until we can get them back . Many of them may not get them back. Who can build a 21st century economy . Joe biden is in a tough spot now in the sense that, you know, he is not a governor, he is not a president with a breathing room, he does not have the tools, so right now, he ought to go out and talk about, obviously, the coronavirus, some things that need to be done, talk a little bit about the economy. But right now, it is a little difficult for him to break through, but he has had a huge advantage in that the party has culminated faster than ever before. Hillary clinton, not until june, when she ran until 2008, and then bernie did not get out until july, you know, in 2016. Here, senator sanders is now out, and i think part of his calculus was, you know, it is going to be hard to win, however, we cannot be fighting in the middle of the coronavirus. The primary is a huge advantage. We are three months ahead of where we have ever been as a party. Mr. Kasich one other point here, and that is, i have talked to terry about this in terms of joe biden being able to not just demonstrate his experience or his leadership, but also his vitality. You cant no one can change their age, but the way in which you communicate ideas and this is, frankly, at the time, because of this dramatic black swan event, for people to be able to reconstruct things in a very positive way, to take advantage of this crisis, to come through it, i think terry and i will agree that rahm emanuel was right, you never waste a crisis. There will be a tremendous opportunity to reconstruct not just the government of the United States, but also all the different sectors of americas economy. Biden is going to have to not just say, i have been there, i have done that, i have been a good leader, but these are the exciting plans i have Going Forward, because these plans are going to be able to demonstrate, if he has them, a vitality that says he has the vigor to be able to get this job done. And then of course nothing is going to be more important, in my mind, at this point,than those debates that will come, of which you will probably be a moderator, how those debates come off will be important also. Susan joe biden is currently campaigning from the basement of his house in wilmington, delaware. To see showich, how vitality and energy with that . Is that a big disadvantage to the president s ability to use the white house . Mr. Mcauliffe i would say trunk has a huge advantage obviously he is in the White House Briefing room. But clearly incorrect statements he has made, he seemed unhinged two days ago, and it really became a negative, because the Fact Checkers cannot control fact checks anymore, because everything is wrong. If he had come out originally, then later, here is what we are going to do, what people do not have masks, google is not, contrary to what he said, doing this testing, we are not going into parking lots right now, none of that is true. Know,hting he can do, you until we start opening up and people began to connect with one another. For the next four weeks, he is literally just out of, you know, talk about the economy, agree with john, show vitality, but we are three months earlier than we have ever been. Nobody should i tell john on the phone every day, democrats love to wring their hands, you know how they are, but dont worry about it. We have got plenty of time. I would say it is very difficult for donald trump to win reelection, if you just go to the three states that we lost by 70,000 votes, 350,000 voters voted for a thirdparty candidate, we are not going to have that this time. Biden is way ahead. I think he wins ohio. We do not have to rush him, but when we do come out, i agree with john, vitality, energy, he has got the experience, and then, you know, bumps trump. Suburban women have left him in droves. Susan do you think it will be hard for President Trump to win a second term . You know that part of the country, as well as anyone, your home state of ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, is it going to be hard for the president to do what he did in 2016 . Mr. Kasich well, i think this gets down to, and you just saw the election in wisconsin for the supreme court, where a democrat won in a big upset, i think it gets down, ultimately, i talked with terry about this, to disenchanted republicans. Theres not going to be great numbers of them, but i have not seen his approval lately, but i do not think it was what it was. It is a little bit less. And also those independents, and of course those of suburban, collegeeducated people are very important in terms of that has anso, i think, biden advantage, because he is sort of bluecollar. I mean, that is where he was born and raised, so he has an ability to speak to him. When i talk about exciting issues, you know, he is sitting there, you know, wherever he is, he is they are, but this is the time for them to really think about the different sectors of our economy. What do they look like . What does the Restaurant Industry look like . What does the Airline Industry what about Small Business . Because we are not going to go back to the old normal. How are these businesses going to have to be reconstructed in a way that they can grow based on the new normal . I say that if terry and i were to sit in a room and we were to go sector by sector, we know an airline, a restaurant, about turning tables, movie theaters, we know that. Those are the kind of ideas that can give people the sense that we have a plan for Going Forward once we get through the virus and that we are going to invest in public health, infrastructure, public health, so that we never get in this position again, but this calls for a very significant new architecture. You know, if you take the federal government and the massive debt that is being run out, what is the federal government going to look like . There was a time that i propose eliminating a bunch of departments, some of this stuff being done outside of washington, how much can be done at home . Can Congress Vote from home, something i proposed back in 1993. These kinds of things coupled with his commas about how we deal with this virus, going health, plusblic his new architecture, i think creates a certain vitality for him and energy for him that i think they would be wise to think about. Susan let me ask one last. Uestion about something this was something governor mcauliffe said. Start, thedifferent nominee in modern times, after first both the tw two contests, and so badly, i am wondering why Bernie Sanders, and everybody else, folded so quickly, and why Bernie Sanders, who was so reluctant last time to enthus enthusiastically embraced hillary clinton, has done so so quickly this time . Why is that . Theyliffe once shopped around, they looked at bernie, they looked at amy, they looked at pete, and then when had superof course, tuesday three days later, and i know pete, i know amy, i know all of these candidates running, and what basically is they ran out of money. If you look at the map Going Forward, they really did not have any viable path, so they made the right decision to get out early, but i cannot tell you how neat this is this year to have senator sanders get out so soly, and, secondly, susan, wholeheartedly endorse joe biden. We could not have written his endorsement video the other day any better. Then of course you had president obama, 12 minutes yesterday, talk about joe biden. I think from bernies perspective, it was a very narrow path. Ofwould have to win 61 every single contest Going Forward. But never to come in 2016, i think senator sanders wanted to run for president again, that is why he took it to the end. He was not going to run again in 2024, so that was a big dynamic. Secondly, you now have trump in office, and i will be diplomatic, with all of the fantasy of the trumpet administration, that is sitting there, and now we have got coronavirus for i think senator sanders said, i cannot be the one, you know, blocking the democrats from winning control of the white house, all of his people are suddenly over, and we have never been this unified before. Let me say, finally, when trump won and 2016, 92 million americans did not vote. They woke up the day and said, holy cow, how did this happen . It happened because they did not vote, and many of them said they will never miss a vote again. Every election since trump was inaugurated, we have had a record democratic turnout. People are energized. That is how we won the house in 2018, we won seven new eight state sta chambers, and i think that momentum will carry on and go into 2020. Mr. Kasich just a couple of points here. First of all, i think joe bidens ability to demonstrate strong support with the Africanamerican Community has been, you know, has been such an advantage for him. Getnow, being able to barack obama to get out and campaign is going to help him significantly, but i will also tell you if joe biden were to think that he has got to win all these Bernie Sanders votes, with these policies, you are going to lose suburban republicans, and you are going to lose a lot of these independence, so i understand, and this business of politics, how joe has to be able to show some Movement Toward those sanders people, but they are never really going to be for joe biden. [laughs] p is just not one of them. So he has got to be very careful. The other thing i will say is we will see how we come out of the other side of this virus. I think it would be a huge mistake to think that donald trump could not win reelection. I think he can. Joe biden think that stands in an excellent chance to be able to do it, all things considered. I think terrys points with what happened in the midterm elections, that is all very important to keep in mind, but i dont think anybody can say this thing, you know, is over. It is just terry is right when he says joe biden has a great chance to be able to win. That is where i would come down. Susan i would just remind our audience to take our poll. We have it open for a few minutes more, so if you have not voted yet, please go ahead and vote. Governor kasich, i would say given our experience in 2016, journalists are not saying it is not possible for donald trump to win the election. That is what we were saying last time, and we were wrong. Lets talk about the conventions. You both have a lot of of experience with local conventions. Governor kasich, your state hosted the last Republican Convention, although you were not on the stage yourself mr. Kasich i did not go. Susan i did not go. You did not go. But it was still in your state. Mr. Kasich yes, ive got it there, but i was not happy with what i was seeing out of the nominee, and i did not endorse him and all of that, but it was held in my stake in my diaper displayed in a number of convention spirit i think in 2008 and 2008, there were contingency plans about the convention because of the threat of hurricanes, so i do not know where they are on the shelf, but whether it is the convention or how we are going to vote, it is going to be a different time. Anybody who thinks we are going to go back to where we were, or anybody who can protect where we are going to be in this kind of a black swan event, they are making a big mistake, because we do not know. I know donald trump says, we are going to have a convention. He says a lot of things. Doesnt happen. Democrats are saying they may have a virtual convention. It will get worked out, as i think voting will get worked out, in one way or another, probably with more being able to vote by mail. Susan lets talk about the convention, governor mcauliffe, the democrats have pushed to the convention in milwaukee back into the time we thought we would be busy with the olympics, in an effort to have a better shot at having an actual, physically and physical contact kind of convention. Do you think that is going to be possible, or realistically, are we talking about our First Virtual convention . And if we are, what do democrats lose if they do not have the traditional convention . Listen, iffe personally think it is most unlikely that we have one. I just think trying to plan for and put the money together and everything they have to do, it is a very difficult environment. I have done conventions, i chaired the 2000 convention. I am still a little bit bitter about that. Bill clinton appointed me to be the investor to saint ambassador to st. James tonight i was prepared to leave the kids, twoth my wife, dogs, so i moved to l. A. For a couple of years instead of going to a beautiful home in england. Mr. Kasich [laughs] can you believe it . Typical, terry. Mr. Mcauliffe they are a great time. People come together, you get all of your activists to come together, your big donors, but you do not really miss out. A lot of mischief can go on and caused some issues with the platform. That all goes away. Clever,with something allow the country to do it, to get the same media exposure. There are a lot of Creative Things we need to do. But the amount of time and money that goes into it, under this coronavirus thing we are in today, i just think it is very unlikely, that is my personal opinion. If we dont have it, it is not the end of the world, and they will do a virtual one, and actually it could save us a lot of big headaches. Mcauliffe, are democrats talking about this, and other places, just quit making plans, that theres a possibility you may not be able to meet in milwaukee . Mr. Mcauliffe yes. You have got to have contingency plans out there. And i think for all of your ambassadors to get into, youve got to raise, you know, 70 million, 80 million for these kinds of things. Can you imagine trying to raise this money to go to milwaukee in the summer . There are a lot of issues we are having to deal with, but clearly they are investigating, what do we do about doing a virtual convention, if we have to do that . I can tell you, here in virginia, we just canceled our state convention, and we will do it virtually. I think people will not put Peoples Health at risk, besides a lot of fun, great parties, but in the end, probably saving joe a lot of headaches. Susan governor kasich, for drum, there is no plan b. He is going to meet in charlotte at the Republican Convention