Joe Biden has a set of advisers in place to guide him in his choice of a running mate, relying on current and former members of Congress, rising star elected officials, and a longtime aide from his time as vice president and a Delaware senator.
Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said Thursday his vice-presidential selection committee will consist of former Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and Cynthia C. Hogan, a staff member for Biden when he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and then during his first term as vice president, from 2009-2013.
The appointments come at an inflection point for Biden’s presidential bid, nearly two months after securing the 2020 nomination and the right to challenge President Trump in the fall. The presidential campaign has taken an unexpected turn with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, forcing both nominees off the hustings. Biden has been confined to his Wilmington, Delaware, home, from which he conducts by video near-daily interviews, fundraisers, or talks with political supporters.
But the candidate’s silence on Tara Reade’s allegations of sexual misconduct in 1993, as new information corroborates portions of her story, is prompting a wave of calls for him to address her claims directly.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post editorial board said that the former vice president should directly address her allegations. And, according to the New York Times, several women’s groups drafted a public letter that praised Biden’s work on passing the Violence Against Women Act but called on him to address Reade’s allegations directly.
As that drama boils over, Biden is turning his attention to a running mate. Biden has said he’ll choose a woman for the understudy role, and several names have risen to the top of his potential list, including a pair of former 2020 Democratic rivals, Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Kamala Harris of California.
Biden’s vice-presidential advisory crew can help guide him on the political and policy implications of choosing one possibility over another. The vetting process, traditionally done by an outside law firm, would then begin with a series of deep background checks into a prospective vice-presidential nominee’s finances and personal life.
Biden himself underwent the rigorous vetting process in 2008, when nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama tapped him for the second-in-command role.
Biden and Dodd were senators together for nearly 30 years and close legislative allies on Capitol Hill. Rep. Blunt Rochester, first elected to the House in 2016 and Delaware’s first black member of Congress, had been bandied about herself as a running mate for Biden. But the Constitution’s 12th Amendment prevents both the presidential and vice-presidential nominees being from the same state.
Garcetti pondered a presidential run in 2020 but demurred. And Hogan has been part of Biden’s inner circle for decades, helping him write the 1994 bill, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.
