Greg Valliere, AGF Investments Chief U.S. Policy Strategist joins the On the Move panel to discuss President Trump's planned EO to require that the federal gov’t buy ‘essential’ drugs from U.S. companies and Biden's pick for Vice President.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: We want to talk more about the big slate of executive orders that apparently are being planned. Greg Valliere is joining us to discuss that. He is AGF Investments' chief US policy strategist. And he's joining us from Washington, DC.

Greg, it's always good to talk to you. So I was planning to talk to you mostly about the one regarding drugs, but it seems like there's a whole slew of EOs that are planned now. I mean, how many of these do you think are actually going to get done? Because the president has talked about a lot of EOs in the past that don't necessarily come to pass.

GREG VALLIERE: Yeah, he could be bluffing, number one. Number two, he could do this, and it could be thrown out in the courts. But he's had a long history-- in his entire life, Julie-- of litigating, and it takes time. It'll take-- it could get tied up in the courts for years. And in the meantime, he could proceed along this path.

I think his ultimate goal is to put pressure on Pelosi and Mitch McConnell to get a deal done. And they know if they don't, Trump will take all the good stuff for him-- the low-hanging fruit-- and Pelosi won't get what she wants, which is state and local government aid, and McConnell won't get what he wants, which is something for liability protection.

ADAM SHAPIRO: But, Greg, you've said that the president-- he might get the public face of, I tried to do something, but it's tied up in the court. That puts pressure on Mitch McConnell, who this morning said he expects a deal to get done. It doesn't seem to put pressure on Pelosi.

GREG VALLIERE: Well, I think Pelosi would like a deal that has state and local government aid in it. And if it's just a Trump deal-- you know, if Trump does three or four things through executive action, you might not get much else.

But I agree with you. I think McConnell could get frozen out here on liability protection. That would anger him. So there's an incentive now I think for the Hill to get something done. Because if they don't, Trump may preempt them.

JULIE HYMAN: What about the drug portion of this or medical products, that is, making them in the United States-- do you think that could end up being part of this? We know already that Kodak got that big loan from the government amidst some controversy, right? So what further moves do you expect on that?

GREG VALLIERE: Well, I could see something in the bill that does give incentives to US companies to bring back manufacturing from China-- drugs, medical equipment, things like that-- or maybe something that would punish companies that don't bring back business from China. Navarro is very aggressive, as you know, and I think he might prevail on this.

DAN HOWLEY: Hey, Greg. I want to kind of change topic to Joe Biden and who he may pick as VP. He does seem to be making this a much more protracted process than we have seen in previous years. I know it's part of now some of the advertisements for Biden and donations-- sign up and be the first to find out who he picks as VP. Do you think this is getting a little out of hand for him? And do you expect him to pick it anytime soon?

GREG VALLIERE: Yeah, I think it's starting to annoy the party. People are beginning to feel that he's starting to look indecisive. And you've got surrogates of all of the candidates sort of whispering about each other saying, well, did you know she did this or she did that? So I think this has got to be brought to a close pretty quickly.

The conventional wisdom, which is not always right, is still with Kamala Harris. I think she makes the most sense. I think she's still the frontrunner. The one wild card that intrigues me is, if Biden thinks he needs inoculation on the issue of urban violence-- you know, there's been so many murders in Chicago, Atlanta, Washington-- picking a former police chief, Val Demings, from Florida, a state that he'd like to win, that's an intriguing wild card.

JULIE HYMAN: And I think it's one that one of our staff-- who may or may not participate in this show-- has been putting his money on. But, Greg, at this point, what can Biden do wrong? In other words, it seems as though he is running more of an anti-Trump campaign than a pro-Biden campaign. What could he do to screw it up?

GREG VALLIERE: Well, you know, Hillary did the same thing. She said, this guy, Trump, is terrible. You've got to vote against him. She didn't explain why people should vote for her. I think Biden-- hopefully for him-- learned a lesson in that.

Two things, very quickly. Trump keeps making accusations that Biden is virtually senile, has mental acuity issues. I think he's doing Biden a favor. Trump is setting the bar so low, all Biden has to do is show up at the debate and make his subjects and verbs agree, and people will say, hey, he looks OK to me. This was an exaggeration.

The far bigger problem for Biden is his agenda, which has moved sharply to the left. I think Trump will be merciless in talking about a wide range of tax hikes that Biden would propose.

JULIE HYMAN: We shall see. Greg Valliere, it's always great to get your perspective, AGF Investments' chief US policy strategist. Thank you so much.