More than a dozen women are now being vetted by Joe Biden’s vice presidential committee, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee said Saturday, adding there “is significantly more than one black woman" being considered.
Biden made the comments in an interview with Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation.”
Earlier this year, in a debate with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Biden committed to choosing a female running mate, and also pledged to appoint the nation’s first African-American woman to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Among the members of Biden’s vice presidential vetting committee are former U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut; U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti; and Cynthia C. Hogan, a former White House and Senate counsel to Biden.
Several women have been rumored to be considered for Biden’s running mate, including Sens. Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren; former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams; Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; and former Attorney General Sally Yates, among others.
»MORE: Women who could become Joe Biden’s running mate
Biden has promised to choose a woman as his running mate and said he will pick someone who is "simpatico" with his views. He also recently shared that former President Barack Obama had advised him to pick someone who "has strengths where I have weaknesses."
There are a number of women who are likely to be considered and have been in regular contact with Biden during the pandemic, including Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. California Sen. Kamala Harris, former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams and Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto are all potential contenders as well.
Biden himself is battling an allegation of sexual assault by a former aide, Tara Reade, who claims the candidate attacked her in the 1990s while he was still a senator. On Friday, Biden addressed the controversy directly for the first time, vehemently denying the allegation on another MSNBC show, "Morning Joe."
On Monday, the secretary of the U.S. senate said the office doesn't have the jurisdiction to release any details of the alleged complaint, rebuffing a request from Biden to do so.
Reade alleges Biden assaulted her in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in the 1990s. Biden was calling on the Senate secretary to release any details of the complaint, which the secretary said it cannot do.
“I’m saying unequivocally, it never, never happened,” said Biden, adding he will ask the National Archives to determine whether there is any record of such a complaint being filed. But Biden said repeatedly that he doesn’t believe such a record exists.
Credit: AJC
“The former staffer has said she filed a complaint back in 1993,” Biden said. “But she does not have a record of this alleged complaint. The papers from my Senate years that I donated to the University of Delaware do not contain personnel files.
“There is only one place a complaint of this kind could be, the National Archives. The National Archives is where the records are kept.”
Biden told donors during a fundraiser Wednesday he hopes the vetting process for his running mate will be done by July.
About the Author
