Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden will be choosing his running mate in a matter of weeks. In fact, he already consulted with former President Barack Obama as they went over the few potential candidates for the post to make sure there won’t “be any snafu,” Reuters reported.
Biden’s options include at least six women that will soon be subjected to background checks. “I have to start that vetting process relatively soon, meaning in a matter of weeks,” Biden told donors at a fundraising event, which was conducted by telephone. “I think there will be a group that is in excess of six or seven people who I’ll look at.”
At a Democratic debate last week, Biden confirmed that he would pick a woman as his running mate. The candidate should also share his fundamental view on policies such as “healthcare, education and the need for expansive U.S. influence in the world.”
But the most important qualification for his running mate is that she must be a capable president should it become necessary for her to take over. “I’ve actually talked to Barack about this – the most important thing is that it 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 said.
Biden is also unconcerned about recent talks that the elections might be postponed because of the virus. “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,” he said. “There’s no need to do that.”
“You know, we voted in the middle of the Civil War, we voted in the middle of World War One and Two,” Biden continued. “The idea of postponing the electoral process seems to me out of the question.”
Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign will be facing one huge problem in terms of visibility. “What I’m concerned about is that we see Donald Trump every day with this crisis giving his press report,” one donor noted “And I would just love to see you more. Like, how do we get more of you and less of him on our airwaves?”
But Biden seems to have this covered based on his response. “I want to be in daily or at least, you know, significant contact with the American people and communicate what I would be doing, what I think we should be doing and how we should be doing it,” he said.