Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman joins The Final Round to discuss his thoughts on the initial challenges former Vice President Joe Biden will face should he be elected president.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Rick, if we do see Biden win next week, he certainly has his work cut out for him. We're in the middle of a pandemic, a significant economic downturn, to say the least. I know you're taking a look at some of the difficulties Joe Biden is going to face right away if he does win this presidency. What stands out to you?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, a lot of people probably don't even remember the Democratic primaries when there were more than 20 candidates. Or they wish they-- or they're trying to forget them. It seems like so long ago. But I think if Biden wins, the single-- the one single thing that is unifying Democrats the most right now, which is getting rid of Trump, that is no longer going to bind the party together.

And I think we're going to see-- I don't know if it'll be a sort of civil war within the party, but I think we're going to see fractures for sure, very similar to what we saw during the Democratic primaries when you had a lot of the so-called progressives-- that's Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and people who didn't run for president like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-- really pushing for aggressive government programs, whether it's Medicare for All, the Green New Deal.

They have actively supported Biden, and I think they're going to want some payback if he wins. And you're already hearing some of them say we want all progressive cabinet. We don't want anybody who's ever been in industry having a cabinet position.

So Biden is going to have to please both sides in a way that I think is a lot easier during the campaign when everybody kind of wants this one general thing, which is to get rid of Trump. I think that's a lot easier than when Biden actually has to start putting policies in place and backing legislation. I think we're going to see some real battles among the Democratic Party.

SEANA SMITH: You know, Rick, that's interesting because I think one of the big focuses over the last couple of weeks is that if we do get a Biden presidency, it's probably still safe to say that the package clearly is going to be much bigger than it would if President Trump was elected again, and then, of course, what a blue wave would then mean for a possible package. But do you think that that could maybe, in party fighting then, could potentially delay another stimulus package?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, first of all, it depends. Democrats have to take the Senate in order to pass that big stimulus package. If Republicans still control the Senate even by one vote, they essentially have a veto over anything the Democrats want to do. And they might not agree to anything bigger than the $500 billion that Mitch McConnell has indicated they're willing to spend. That's about 1/4 or even only 1/5 of what Democrats might try to go for if they were to win both Houses.

So there is a very large difference between the stimulus bill we could get if Democrats control the White House and Congress or if Democrats only control part of it. But if Democrats do run the show, you know, the baseline I think is the $2.4 trillion bill the House Democrats passed last May.

And we could find them trying to, you know, lard some other stuff in there as well that even puts it close to $3 trillion. Because the way the Senate works with the reconciliation rule, that stimulus package could be the only shot they get at certain types of spending programs in 2021. So that is going to be a big one. I think after that is when the difficulties will come among the Democrats.

SEANA SMITH: All right, Rick Newman, a week away. You have a busy week ahead of you.

RICK NEWMAN: [INAUDIBLE]

SEANA SMITH: Seven days until November 3.