Former Vice President Joe Biden said during a Monday campaign event in New Hampshire that he would consider selecting a Republican as his running mate but conceded that he could not name which rival party member he would choose.
Biden raised the prospect of a GOP running mate in response to a supporter warning the 2020 Democrat frontrunner that he will “have to pull out all the stops” to defeat President Donald Trump if he cliches his party’s nomination.
“The answer is I would, but I can’t think of one now,” Biden responded, prompting laughs from some supporters. “No I’m serious, here’s what I mean. Let me explain that,” the 77-year-old continued. “You know, there’s some really decent Republicans that are out there still, but here’s the problem right now… they’ve got to step up.”
Biden then added that there are a “plethora of qualified people,” particularly “qualified women” and “qualified African Americans.”
“Who knew what my priorities were and knew what I wanted to do. We could disagree on tactic, but strategically we’d have to be on the exact same page,” he then explained.
Biden’s comments come after floating several women as his running mate, including failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), though he did not reference them by name.
“Not just people who are running. I could start naming people, but the press would think that was who I picked if I were the nominee. But there’s an incredible number of people,” Biden said during a campaign event last month in Iowa. “The former assistant attorney general who got fired who was just in Delaware. The leader of the, uh, the woman who should’ve been the governor of Georgia, the African American woman … the two senators from the state of New Hampshire. I mean, there’s an enormous number of qualified people.”
Biden has also said “of course” he would mull over Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his number two.
“She’s solid. She can be the president one day herself. She can be the vice president. She can go on to be a Supreme Court justice,” he said after the senator departed from the crowded Democrat primary race.
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