The Veepstakes List Explained
Bidens list is still pretty long he previously said he hoped to narrow it to a shortlist of around 12 or so contenders. One young political star, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , isnt on it. At 30 years old, she is still five years shy of the minimum age for a vice presidential candidate not to mention more ideologically aligned with Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Heres a list of potential contenders either mentioned by Biden himself or raised by his prominent allies and advisers.
California Sen. Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris tops many vice presidential lists, for good reason. Bidens onetime competitor for the 2020 presidential nomination represents California in the US Senate she was elected to that position after serving asthe states attorney general. As a Black woman, she may appeal to the Democratic Partys most loyal constituency, and she recently helped craft the Justice in Policing Act, the sweeping policing reform bill from House and Senate Democrats. However, Harriss criminal justice record as a former prosecutor has not always translated into the easiest relationship with Black communities especially with groups on the left.
Despite some tense moments between Harris and Biden early in the campaign , the two seem to have reconciled maybe.Politico recently reported that former Sen. Chris Dodd, who is helping lead Bidens VP search committee, told a Biden donor that Harris had no remorse over her debate skirmish with Biden.
California Rep. Karen Bass
Goal : Balance The Ticket Demographically Particularly On Race And Ethnicity
Helps: Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Abrams, Cortez Masto
Hurts: Baldwin, Klobuchar, Warren, Whitmer basically anyone who is white
Close to 40 percent of registered Democratic voters identify as Asian, black, Hispanic or something other than white.1 And the Democratic Party cares deeply about racial diversity. An all-white ticket might happen, but it would get lots of blowback. The same is likely true of an all-male ticket hence, Bidens pledge. Already, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, whose endorsement of Biden seemed to help the former vice president win big in South Carolina, is calling for him to name a black woman as his running mate.
This kind of demographic balancing has occurred in the past two Democratic primaries. The major contenders to be Obamas running mate in 2008 were all white men, and the top contenders to be Clintons running mate in 2016 were nearly all men.
Currently, only one woman of color is a governor , and only four are U.S. senators . So its likely that Cortez Masto, Duckworth, Harris and Lujan Grisham all will get a serious look from Biden and his team and that they will also consider more nontraditional choices, like Abrams and U.S. Rep Val Demings of Florida, in part to meet the partys demand for a racially diverse ticket.
She Wanted To Be A Republican President Shes Voting For Biden
The former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina tells The Ticket that she plans to vote for Joe Biden.
Republicans who say Donald Trump should lose in November but insist they wont vote for Joe Biden arent being honest, Carly Fiorina argues.
Fiorina was a Republican candidate for president just four years ago, and was briefly Ted Cruzs prospective running mate. Trump needs to go, she saysand that means shes voting for Biden.
Fiorina is not going to keep quiet, write in another candidate, or vote third-party. Ive been very clear that I cant support Donald Trump, she told me, in an interview that can be heard in full on the latest episode of The Ticket. And elections are binary choices. She struggled with the decision, and whether to go public. But she said that this struggle is one Republicans need to haveincluding those who have rationalized supporting Trump despite their disagreements, because of some of his policies or judicial appointments.
As citizens, our vote is more than a check on a box. You know, its a statement about where we want to go, and I think what we need now actually is real leadership that can unify the country, she said. I am encouraged that Joe Biden is a person of humility and empathy and character. I think hes demonstrated that through his life. And I think we need humility and empathy everywhere in public life right now. And I think character counts.
Listen to the interview here:
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Gov Michelle Lujan Grisham
While she hasn’t received as much attention as some candidates, Lujan Grisham is as qualified as any.
New Mexico’s governor since 2019, she previously worked as her state’s health secretary, potentially making her a key point person in a Washington administration that would still have to be focused on the coronavirus. In between those those state duties, she was in D.C. as a member of U.S. House between 2013 and 2018, including two years when she led the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
The Pew Research Center estimates the number of eligible Latino voters this year is expected to reach 32 million, with a significant presence in competitive Florida and Arizona. Trump grabbed just eight per cent of the Black vote in 2016 but took a healthier 28 per cent of the Latino vote, making Lujan Grisham, 60, a potentially savvy strategic choice.
Lujan Grisham’s personal story of persevering after tragedy would likely resonate with Biden, who lost his first wife and baby daughter in a 1972 car accident. Lujan Grisham became a single parent after her husband collapsed while jogging in 2004, dying of a brain aneurysm at 45.
Ferraro Went From Rising Star To Failed Candidate
The daughter of illiterate Italian immigrants, Ms Ferraro was driven to succeed and grew up to become a prominent New York lawyer.
With a stellar resume she helped create a Special Victims Unit at the Queen’s District Attorney’s Office in 1974, which inspired the TV show Law and Order: SVU it was no surprise that a career in politics would eventually follow.
With Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale polling badly against president Ronald Reagan in 1984, his campaign decided on a bold move: choosing a woman as his running mate.
It was simultaneously a stunt to energise a flailing campaign, and a monumental decision that finally gave a woman the chance at leading the nation.
Female delegates, clutching ‘To Gerry, With Love’ posters, wept as she accepted the nomination at the Democratic Convention.
“Tonight, the daughter of an immigrant from Italy has been chosen to run for vice-president in the new land my father came to love,” Ms Ferraro said.
She did wonders for the campaign. Mr Mondale, down 16 points in national polls, briefly pulled even with Mr Reagan, according to Politico.
In politics and the corporate world, this is known as the glass cliff phenomenon. Research suggests women are more likely to be selected for leadership roles during times of crisis.
According to Blair Williams, an Australian National University associate lecturer at the School of Politics and International Relations, there are some reasons why this has emerged.
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Biden Says He Would Consider Choosing A Republican As Running Mate
Former Vice President Joe Biden said at a campaign stop in New Hampshire Monday that he would consider choosing a Republican running mate if he wins the 2020 Democratic nomination, but that he “can’t think of one right now,”CNN reports.
What he’s saying:“There are some really decent Republicans that are out there still, but heres the problem right now with the well-known ones: Theyve got to step up. You know what I mean?”
- Biden also said it is “presumptuous” for him to talk about potential running mates without having won the nomination.
- “Whomever I would pick for vice president and theres a lot of qualified women, theres a lot of qualified African Americans, there really, truly are. Id pick someone who was simpatico with me, who knew what my priorities were and knew what I wanted to do,” Biden said.
Why it matters: Biden faced backlash earlier in the primary for allegations that he spoke fondly about working across the aisle with segregationist senators during a speech about “civility.”
- He later apologized and said the comments were misconstrued, but throughout his campaign has continued to emphasize the importance of working with the “opposition” to get things done.
Between the lines: The pitch wouldn’t be the first time a presidential nominee weighed a bipartisan White House ticket. The late Republican Sen. John McCain considered choosing independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, once a Democrat, as his vice presidential pick in 2008.
Joe Biden Picks Kamala Harris As Running Mate
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Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday tapped Senator Kamala Harris of California as his choice for vice president, his campaign told supporters in a text message.
Harris, 55, becomes the first Black woman on a major presidential ticket in U.S. history and providing him with a partner well suited to go on the attack against Republican President Donald Trump.
Read more: Trump claims some men insulted by Bidens promise to select female running mate
I have the great honor to announce that Ive picked a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the countrys finest public servants as my running mate.
. can unify the American people because he’s spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he’ll build an America that lives up to our ideals.
I’m honored to join him as our party’s nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.
Kamala Harris
And as president, hell build an America that lives up to our ideals, she wrote. Im honored to join him as our partys nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-chief.
With social unrest over racial injustice and police brutality against Black Americans rocking the country for months, Biden had been under increasing pressure to select a woman of color as his running mate. She is also the first Asian-American on a major presidential ticket.
Lets go win this, .
Joe Biden
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Trumps Treatment Of Women Reporters
President Donald Trump waves goodbye after signing four executive orders during a news conference on Saturday.
President Donald Trump abruptly ended a news conference Saturday when challenged by CBS reporter Paula Reid after Trump, as he has done more than 150 times, bragged about passing the Veterans Choice health program when, in fact, Barack Obama signed it into law in 2014.
Reid asked Trump, Why do you keep saying that you passed Veterans Choice?
Trump tried calling on another reporter, but Reid continued to challenge the president by saying, You said that you passed Veterans Choice. It was passed in 2014. It was a false statement, sir.
To which Trump paused, looked off to the side and then said, OK. Thank you very much, everybody, and walked off.
It was reminiscent of other times when he has suddenly walked out of press conferences when challenged by a female reporter. He has walked out of a coronavirus press conference after being challenged by CNNs Kaitlan Collins. In another one, he called a question by CNNs Weijia Jiang nasty and refused to answer it. He once told PBS Yamiche Alcindor to be nice with her questions. In another exchange with Reid, he called her disgraceful.
In one interview, he complained about Jiang and Reid, saying they werent Donna Reed what Trump perceived as the stereotypical American housewife of the 1950s and 1960s.
Death Of Wife And Daughter
On December 18, 1972, a few weeks after the election, Biden’s wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in an automobile accident while Christmas shopping in Hockessin, Delaware. Neilia’s station wagon was hit by a semi-trailer truck as she pulled out from an intersection. Their sons Beau and Hunter survived the accident and were taken to the hospital in fair condition, Beau with a broken leg and other wounds and Hunter with a minor skull fracture and other head injuries. Biden considered resigning to care for them, but Senate Majority LeaderMike Mansfield persuaded him not to.
Years later, Biden said he had heard that the truck driver allegedly drank alcohol before the collision. The driver’s family denied that claim, and the police never substantiated it. Biden later apologized to the family. The accident had filled him with anger and religious doubt. He wrote that he “felt God had played a horrible trick” on him, and he had trouble focusing on work.
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Goal : Balance The Ticket Ideologically
Helps: Abrams, Harris, Warren
Hurts: Klobuchar
The other main balancing goal that presidential nominees typically have, in addition to demographics, is ideology. In 1988, the Democratic nominee, Gov. Michael Dukakis, sought to counteract his reputation as a Massachusetts liberal by choosing one of the partys more moderate figures, then-Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. In 2012, the GOP nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, considered insufficiently conservative by some Republicans, chose as his running mate someone beloved by the GOPs right wing: then-Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
By this metric, Klobuchar would not be an ideal running mate for Biden. She has a somewhat centrist record, as does he, and took fairly similar positions to the former vice president during the Democratic primary, such as panning the idea of Medicare for All. Choosing her as his running mate would intensify the criticism of Biden from the partys left wing, who would likely complain that he is expecting liberals to vote for him while essentially ignoring their wishes.
The Pick Is In: Biden Chooses Kamala Harris As His Vp
In a now-infamous debate-stage exchange, Harris attacked Biden for working with segregationists to oppose busing in the 1970s.
The showdown was seen as the peak of Harris campaign but was considered by some in Bidens camp as a low blow and the senator was forced to repeatedly defend herself over the confrontation.
A few months earlier, Harris also said she believed the women who have stepped forward to say Biden made them uncomfortable with unwanted touching.
I believe them, and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it, she had said.
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Women In Politics Are Held Up To A Higher Standard
On the campaign trail, Ms Ferraro said she and Mr Mondale had to be conscious of sparking rumours. They never touched in public or appeared together without their spouses present.
She was asked if she knew how to bake muffins and whether she was “strong enough” to start a nuclear war.
“The press was very hard on me, very hard especially the white men reporters,” she said in the documentary Paving The Way.
When she debated against George HW Bush, the Republican’s spokesman Peter Teeley described her performance afterwards as “too bitchy”.
“She’s very arrogant. Humility isn’t one of her strong points, and I think that comes through,” he told reporters in October 1984.
But it was her husband’s finances that saw her undone. They were scrutinised after the Mondale campaign failed to vet the couple’s taxes properly.
“This is an unfortunate theme in American politics,” research associate with the US Studies Centre Elliott Brennan said.
“Women have been consistently anchored by their opponents, the press and the public to the actions of their husbands and the men around them, as both Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton have shown us.”
In the end, the Mondale-Ferraro campaign lost in a landslide. Ronald Reagan won 49 states and nearly 59 per cent of the popular vote.
“More than once I have sat down and said to myself, ‘Oh, God I wish I had never gone through with it,'” Ms Ferraro told the New York Times three years after the election.
Time To Tackle This Tired Topic
Heres a narrative that is long past annoying and is now just getting exhausting: that sports media members who point out the dangers of having sports during the coronavirus actually want seasons to be canceled.
The tiresome part is that many of these ridiculous claims are coming from other media members.
Two weeks ago, NFL Networks Kyle Brandt tweeted that there were some NFL media almost rooting for the season to be impacted by COVID-19. Then, over the weekend, Joel Klatt, who is a part of Fox Sports college football coverage, tweeted that many in the college football media world have worked hard to push panic and fear.
To suggest that those who work in an already precarious media world are hoping or working for the very sport they cover to be canceled and, potentially, put their own jobs at risk is simply absurd. Actually, those making such claims appear to have a rooting interest. They appear to be the ones who want to ignore the facts simply because they want their sports at seemingly any cost.
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There Will Be Misogynistic Comments The Challenge For The Media Is To Not Repeat It Even If It Is To Shoot It Down Or Point Out Its Chauvinism
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Are you ready?
Thats what Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Sunday when asked by a reporter if he had made his selection for a vice presidential running mate.
So whos it going to be? Kamala Harris? Elizabeth Warren? Susan Rice? Tammy Duckworth? Karen Bass? Gretchen Whitmer?
We should find out any minute now, but on Sunday, FiveThirtyEights Nate Silver said, Im not really making predictions here, but I suppose I buy the conventional wisdom here that Harris is the favorite.
In his segment on ABCs This Week, Silver laid out that conventional wisdom. He explained that it remains a guessing game, but heres what the past has shown:
Of the 28 people nominated to be vice president on a major party ticket since World War II, 20 or about 70% were senators or governors. Of those 28, 13 would later go on to run for president. And of those people who actually became vice president, 75% went on to run for president, including Biden.
Which brings up a misogynistic slant in the commentary, particularly when it comes to Harris. The California senator has been criticized for being too ambitious. Yet, as Silver points out, history has shown that vice presidents often go on to run for president, and no one calls them too ambitious.
