One former vice president will soon be looking for his own running mate.
2020 Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden told reporters on Sunday that he spoke with former President Barack Obama about what to keep in mind when choosing a vice presidential candidate. He noted he will start the search “in a matter of weeks.”
“I have to start that vetting process relatively soon, meaning in a matter of weeks,” Biden told reporters, adding, “I think there will be a group that is in excess of six or seven people that I look at – because those background checks matter.”
The former vice president added that the “most important thing” in choosing a running mate is choosing someone who is “prepared to be President of the United States of America if something happened.”
“But I think there are plenty of women who are ready, been tested out there who are capable of answering all those questions. And the most important thing, and I’ve actually talked to Barack about this — the most important thing is that there has to be someone who, the day after they’re picked, is prepared to be President of the United States of America if something happened.”
Biden previously committed to choosing a woman as his vice presidential pick, as he is vying for the party’s nomination to take on President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
He said during a 2020 Democratic debate, “I commit that I will, in fact, pick a woman to be vice president. There are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow. I would pick a woman to be my vice president.”
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NEW: Joe Biden says if elected he will choose a woman to be vice president pic.twitter.com/eq38FVbMau
— Axios (@axios) March 16, 2020
Asked also if he would choose a woman as his vice president, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said at the time, “In all likelihood, I will.”
Biden has tossed around a few ideas of some he would consider as his running mate, including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Ca.).
The former vice president is in the lead followed by Sanders, as of polls conducted through March 19. In delegate count, Biden has 1,201 delegates while Sanders has 896 delegates, as of March 20 — out of 1,991 delegates needed to win the nomination.
As for the November general election amid uncertainty over the future due to the coronavirus outbreak, Biden recently said during a virtual campaign event, “We voted [in] the middle of a Civil War. We voted in the middle of World War I and II. And so the idea of postponing the electoral process is just, seems to me, out of the question.”
“I know there’s a lot of rumors and speculation as to, ‘is the other guy going to try to postpone the election in November’ and all that. There’s no need to do that,” he added.
