Former Vice President Al Gore appeared to support the idea that Joe Biden should name former President Barack Obama as “coronavirus czar” if he becomes president.
During a Friday evening appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, Gore addressed the 2020 presidential election and what role the pandemic will play in it.
“What would you think about Biden naming Obama coronavirus czar right now?” Maher asked. “He did really good with the Ebola virus. You think that would excite people to get to the polls, knowing that Obama was going to be in charge of handling this disease as opposed to the way it’s being handled at the top right now?”
Gore first responded by saying that Biden should make sure Obama wants the position before offering it to him publicly, but noted that Obama “would be extremely capable at anything that he was assigned to.”
“I’d question whether or not Biden would want to do that right now, but it’s not a bad idea, Bill,” he added.
Biden’s campaign has been relegated to second fiddle as the pandemic continues. The former vice president has been forced to change his entire campaign operation to be online. Even though every other candidate vying for the Democratic nomination has dropped out, a recent poll showed that many Democrats believe New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo might be better suited for the top of the ticket.
A nationwide poll found that 56% of likely Democratic voters said that they would like Cuomo to be the Democratic presidential nominee rather than Biden, while 44% said that the former vice president should be the nominee. The online survey was conducted among 1,000 likely voters from April 3-6, and the results for the Democratic sample have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.
