‘Play The Game’: Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro Break Down Possible Trump VP Shortlist

Former Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro broke down a possible vice presidential shortlist of presumptive 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump on Friday’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

Former President Trump provided insight into his running mate selection in a interview on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” released earlier Friday, characterizing his vetting process as a “sophisticated version of The Apprentice.”

McCarthy weighed as the “Real Time” panel segment discussed Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio before revealing the candidate he believes can “win the election.”

“Yeah, so Rubio would move to Virginia. Same thing that Cheney did: he moved out of Texas, went back to Wyoming. You can’t come from the same state,” McCarthy said.

“I know. So, you move?” Maher responded.

Ben Shapiro then pointed out Rubio “spent a fair amount of his year in Nevada,” before McCarthy explained Rubio “would have to resign from the Senate.” Shapiro added that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “would subsequently appoint his replacement.”

“You just can’t be from the same state,” McCarthy said.

“This is going to be ‘Apprentice.’ It’s gonna be all think around, he’s gonna make you guess where it is,” McCarthy added.

McCarthy said Rubio would be an “excellent” running mate for Trump; however, the former House Speaker then redirected attention to Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin as the selection who he believed would “win the election.”

“If you really want to play the game — I want to win the election — pick Youngkin in Virginia. Put Youngkin in play, and the race is over,” McCarthy told his fellow “Real Time” panelists.

McCarthy highlighted Youngkin’s popularity in Virginia, a state where Biden currently leads Trump by 3%, according to SoCal Research polling data from FiveThirtyEight. Trump is closing the gap in Virginia as Biden took the state by a 10.1% margin in 2020. (RELATED: Fox News Bill Hemmer Breaks Down Trump’s ‘Blue Wall’ Strategy)

“Now, if you took the polling, you would say Trump has Arizona, Trump has Nevada, Trump has Georgia, so that gets them to 267,” McCarthy said. “In Maine and Oklahoma and Nebraska, go by congressional district, so they’re gonna split in there.”

“He has to win either Michigan, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania,” McCarthy continued. “He has to win one of those three. He only lost Wisconsin by 20. But the real challenge is black America has switched off of Biden. They’re not voting for Trump, but they’re not turning out. So, he has to win one of those three.”

Trump currently leads Biden in four battleground states. The Republican candidate is up 5.4% in Arizona and 5.3% in Pennsylvania. Trump also has a 2.6% lead over Biden in Wisconsin and a 0.6% advantage in Michigan, according to the RealClearPolitics average.

In 2020, Biden netted the four battleground states. The Democratic president took Michigan by 2.7% and Pennsylvania by 1.17% of the vote. Biden also took Wisconsin by 0.62% and Arizona by 0.3%.

Trump reportedly plans to announce his running mate as part of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which begins Monday.