Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton claims the top criterion she will use in selecting a running mate is whether the individual can take on the duties of the president in a moment’s notice.
“Can this person do the job if something were to happen to the president?” she told radio host John Catsimatidis during an interview aired Sunday.
Clinton said “there are a lot of qualified men” for the vice presidential position, but she plans to “look hard” at qualified men and women as she moves closer to determining her running mate.
“If I’m so fortunate as to wrap up the nomination, I’m going to really look hard at who can do the job,” she said.
The Clinton campaign has kept mostly mum on where they are at in their process of vetting potential running mates for the former secretary of state. But the New York Times reported last week reported a list of potential running mates including elected officials from key general election states, as well as others. The list, widely seen as leaked by the Clinton campaign, included Virginia senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown and Florida’s Bill Nelson. All four senators are Democrats. Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Deval Patrick, who was the first black man to serve as Masschusetts’ governor, also made the list, along with Labor Secretary Thomas Perez.
Clinton currently leads her Democratic opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, by 327 pledged delegates and nearly 500 superdelegates.
