Stacey Abrams tried to clean up doubts she cast on her own chances of becoming Joe Biden’s running mate with a confusing clarification.
“I would say that vetting conversations need to be had with the Biden team. I was responding on the Colbert show to a very specific question that was raised about April Ryan,” Abrams told ABC News on Sunday.
But the failed 2018 Democratic Georgia gubernatorial nominee added her voting rights work was more important to her at the moment than veepstakes speculation.
Abrams, who lost her 2018 gubernatorial bid to Republican Brian Kemp 50.2% to 48.8%, slammed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for his management of Tuesday’s primary elections. Georgia’s contests were marred by hourlong lines, missing or glitchy voting machines, and misplaced ballots, foreshadowing possible problems for the general elections.
“Writ large my focus is on making sure that we have elections that can happen in November. There will be no vice president, there will be no president if our democracy crumbles under the inefficiencies and the inequities that we see happening,” the former Georgia House minority leader said.
Despite publicly and repeatedly suggesting she’s up for the role, Abrams told The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week Biden’s campaign hasn’t contacted her.
Colbert pressed Abrams about a June 4 tweet from American Urban Radio Networks Washington Bureau Chief April Ryan that implied she was being vetted.
“Are you calling April Ryan a liar?” Colbert asked.
“I look forward to hearing from whomever April Ryan is speaking to,” Abrams replied.
Aides to Biden, the two-term vice president and presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, have narrowed his understudy shortlist to three top contenders, according to the Associated Press. The leading candidates are California Sen. Kamala Harris, Obama-era national security adviser Susan Rice, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, while Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Florida Rep. Val Demings, and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham remain in the running.
The New York Times similarly reported Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois have been interviewed and handed over documents.
On Sunday, Abrams offered thinly veiled criticism of Bottoms’s leadership in Atlanta. Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned this weekend after Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old black man, was shot and killed by an officer after a complaint he’d been sleeping in a Wendy’s drive-thru.
“There’s a legitimacy to this anger, there’s a legitimacy to this outrage,” she said. “Those are conversations that have to be had, not only through speeches, but through the decisions made by budget allocations.”
