Biden has decided on running mate pick

Biden has informed the women on Biden’s running mate shortlist whether or not they were selected, according to New York Magazine. Women rumored to be at the top of Biden’s shortlist include California Sen. Kamala Harris, former national security adviser Susan Rice, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

The New York Times also reported Tuesday that vendors who have worked with the Biden campaign were setting up lighting and a sound system at a ballroom in the historic Hotel du Pont, where Biden announced his 1972 Senate candidacy.

There will be no event with Biden and the presumptive vice presidential nominee on Tuesday, the New York Times reported. But that may still mean that the pick will be announced on Tuesday. In 2016, Hillary Clinton announced that her running mate was Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine the day before the two appeared together at a campaign event.

Earlier on Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is on Biden’s running mate selection committee, teased that a selection was imminent. “I can’t say anything, but I wouldn’t walk that dog unless it was maybe just outside. I think you might need to relieve him close to home,” he said.

Biden’s team is using speculation about his pick to build lists of voter contacts for his campaign, saying that it will send a text message announcing the pick to those on the list.

The former vice president’s final days and hours before the announcement of his running mate have been filled with last-minute calls from some activists to choose a black woman as his running mate. The pushes came in response to news that Whitmer, a white woman, met with Biden last week for an interview in the selection process.

Biden spokesman Andrew Bates issued a statement on the pick focused on rebutting expected attacks from President Trump.

“The Trump campaign has already discredited their attacks before we’re even out of the gate by announcing that regardless of who Joe Biden nominates, they’ll strain to depict the VP candidate as ‘radical’ — just like they’ve tried and failed to do with Biden himself for months. In other words, they’ve flat out admitted they will lie,” Bates said.