Sanders drops 2020 presidential bid, stocks extend gains

Bernie Sanders drops out of the presidential race. Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman joins the On The Move panel to weigh in.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: One other piece of news that we've been following today has to do with the presidential campaign, which yes, continues on even amidst this pandemic. Bernie Sanders has suspended his campaign for president, perhaps unsurprisingly.

Rick Newman, you have been following that for us. Bernie has sort of played this role, right, of pulling the party to the left. And even in his statement, he said, the campaign ends, the struggle continues. So it seems like he's going to continue to at least try to play that role.

RICK NEWMAN: Yeah, the revolution didn't work out. Americans weren't really up for a revolution, and now we have other problems. But I think Bernie Sanders has been influential. I mean, Joe Biden, now the presumptive-- presumptive nominee, he does favor policies that do reflect some of Bernie Sanders' priorities. He doesn't favor Medicare for All, but he does favor a much bigger role for the government in health care, for example, same with environmental policies.

You know, it's possible that Bernie Sanders did some internal polling from the Wisconsin election, which was yesterday, and he knows something we don't about how well he did there. We're not going to get actual results until next week. But this-- so it's not a surprise that he's pulling out, Julie, but it's really important for two reasons.

First, he-- he and Biden have done this in a peaceable way, so it lays the groundwork for him supporting Biden. And that did not happen in 2016 when Hillary Clinton was the nominee. There was a lot of bad blood.

Second, and I think this is a big deal, the biggest name in the Democratic Party is Barack Obama, and he has been completely silent on the campaign while the Democrats have been figuring out whom to nominate. That's because I think he doesn't want to be seen as favoring one candidate over another. Well, now that the process is basically settled, I think Obama is free to speak.

And I think Obama could end up being very influential in this race. I think it's doubtless that he will campaign for Joe Biden. And he could generate some of the excitement that Biden himself doesn't. So look for Obama to get involved here.

ADAM SHAPIRO: I am curious, because you brought up Obama, this is now the presidential campaign, President Trump and Mr. Biden. But we're in this unprecedented period of time. What happens next? As President Trump has the daily press briefing, what does Biden do now since he's essentially the nominee?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, we know what he has been doing. I mean, he's-- he has-- he's out there, but he's-- he's broadcasting from a TV studio in the basement of his home in Delaware. And he's-- I mean, he's, you know, staying in place like all the rest of us. I think that's all Biden can do for the time being.

But you know, the Democrats can now start unifying as a party. They can start developing more unified advertising strategies, figure out what to do about the convention. That's a big deal. They now are saying they want to delay that until-- until August in Milwaukee.

So I think what Biden can start doing now is all of the things that the national nominee needs to do. So start doing the research on who his cabinet should be, the vice presidential pick, start drawing some of these people into the campaign so that this looks like it's not just Biden versus Trump, it's-- it's a team of people behind Biden, including some of the people who are very popular in the party-- Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, maybe even Elizabeth Warren, although she's been noncommittal, and even perhaps Bernie Sanders.

JULIE HYMAN: We shall see. I know you'll be on top of it, Rick. Thank you so much.