Joe Biden said he would prefer not to pick a white man as his running mate if he wins the presidential nomination, but it’s more important that whomever the person is supports his goals.
The former vice president, who is leading in most 2020 polls, made the comments to a small group of black journalists he met with Tuesday, the Washington Post reported.
“Whomever I pick, preferably it will be someone who was of color and/or a different gender, but I’m not making that commitment until I know that the person I’m dealing with I can completely and thoroughly trust as authentic and on the same page [as me],” he said in response to a question about whether his potential running mate would reflect the diversity of the country.
Biden, 76, said former President Barack Obama selected him as his running mate because he could be trusted to back him up, not because he could help win over voters who may not have supported a black man with an unusual name.
“You’ve got to have somebody you can turn to,” Biden said. “[Obama] knew that he and I had the same value set and the same political disposition as what we should do, and he knew if I ever had any doubt, I would come back to him. That’s what I most want in whomever I pick. They’ve got to be simpatico with what I stand for and with what I want to get done.”
Before he announced his candidacy, Biden reportedly was considering picking a running mate early in the Democratic primary, a decision he hoped would help keep the focus on a potential race between him and President Trump. Around the same time, his campaign team was also considering Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams as a potential running mate, but both parties denied the reports.
