Would Biden pick a female running mate? ‘At least 9 women I can think of,’ he says
Former Vice President Joe Biden last year floated a handful of women he would consider inviting onto his ticket if he wins the Democratic presidential nomination — and now he has suggested that there a few more women he would mull for the job.
Campaigning in Osage, Iowa, Biden responded to a question Wednesday about whether he’d consider former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams for the No. 2 post by commenting that he would, adding that there are at least nine women that he would think about, according to a reporter for The Recount, a politics-focused news outlet.
“There’s at least nine women I can think of who are fully capable of being president,” Biden said in Osage, according to Associated Press reporter Steve Peoples.
Still, Biden apparently didn’t name names this week.
Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Epstein tweeted Wednesday that Biden made a similar comment, quoting the 2020 frontrunner as saying that “I could name you eight women” he would mull as vice president, as well as some African Americans.
That response came after a voter in Mason City told Biden that “you could clinch my deal with a Biden-Klobuchar nomination or at least a female vice president on the ticket,” according to Epstein.
Biden also said he would consider women for roles across his administration if he won the presidency.
“From attorney general to vice president to every major office,” Biden said, according to Radio Iowa. “… Look at my staff, my senior staff. I have more women, more African Americans … than a lot of campaigns do … and I can name for you eight women who would easily qualify to be president of the United States and be a vice presidential pick, but I am not going to make any specific commitment to one person now.”
Who has Biden mentioned so far in terms of women he would invite onto a Democratic ticket to face off against President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in November?
Asked who’d pick as a running mate during an Iowa town hall in November, Biden at first demurred, the Des Moines Register reported.
“I could start naming people but the press will think that’s who I picked,” Biden said, according to the newspaper — but then Biden went on to list “the former assistant attorney general who got fired,” an apparent reference to Sally Yates, as well as “the woman who should have been the governor of Georgia,” alluding to Stacey Abrams, and “the two senators from the state of New Hampshire.”
Those members of Congress are Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, both Democrats and both women.
Biden also told The Sacramento Bee that he would consider Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, a one-time rival for the nomination who has since dropped out of the race, as his running mate.
“She’s qualified to be president, and I’d consider her for anything that she would be interested in,” Biden told The Bee.
Of Biden’s remaining competitors for the Democratic nomination, only a handful are women: Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, as well as Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.
This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 8:42 PM with the headline "Would Biden pick a female running mate? ‘At least 9 women I can think of,’ he says."
