Joe Biden on Tuesday said his vice presidential search committee has interviewed “a lot” of the people under consideration to be his potential running mate.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee would not commit to choosing a woman of color as his running mate, saying that “we haven’t gotten there yet.”
“There are women of color under consideration, and they’re women from every part of the country – so a lot of really qualified women that are ready to be president,” the former vice president told CNN’s Dana Bash, his first in-person sit-down interview since being sidelined from campaigning in March amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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He said the four-person group he appointed to vet potential running-mates – former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, Delaware Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and longtime Biden aide Cynthia C. Hogan – has “interviewed a lot of these people already.” He did not say who had been interviewed.
Biden has previously said he would choose a female running mate, and that more than a dozen women are under consideration.
In the interview with CNN, he laid out some of his considerations in choosing a running mate.
“I think the two most important things are you got to pick someone who’s compatible with you, both in terms of your style – and my style and Barack’s (were) very different, but they were compatible, they work with one another – and someone who in fact, you would want to be the last person in the room when you’re making a tough decision,” he said.
He also said he wanted to select someone “who will be loyal in the sense that whatever disagreements you have are between you and the president at that moment.”
