Biden Won’t Commit To Female Running Mate, Says President And Veep Must Be ‘Simpatico’

Former Vice President Joe Biden is open to having a female running mate but won’t commit to choosing a woman at this time. The front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that while a female vice president would be great, there are other issues to consider when putting together a ticket.

“I think it would be great to have a female VP,” Biden said. “If I don’t win, it would be great to have a female president. But the question is, whose issues are best prepared in their wheelhouse? They’ve demonstrated they know how to deal with them.”

“Would you consider not having a woman as a VP?” Cuomo asked.

“Look, here’s the first thing about being a VP I’ve learned and that is that in today’s environment there’s so much a president has on his or her plate, they need someone they completely trust, that they’re simpatico with, have the same political approach, and you can delegate significant authority to,” Biden said.

“The president [Obama] when he delegated authority to me from the moonshot to Ukraine, he gave me the authority to make decisions because he knew I knew where he was. He knew that I knew something about it. And he knew we were simpatico. So that’s what I’m looking for.”

Biden said that an all female ticket could win the 2020 election and there are many qualified women in the field, but Cuomo wanted to know if Biden would pick Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate. Harris and Biden have publicly clashed on the issue of school busing.

“Look, one of the things I’m not going to get into because it got news before is when I was asked — I don’t even have the nomination, and I’m presuming who I might pick as a vice president. That’s easily flipped on me and saying, well, Biden’s being arrogant. Biden thinks I’ll have him as my vice president. I’m not going to comment on any individual.”

Biden went on to say: “If I started naming some of the people around the country, women who are not running for president as well, who are fully qualified to be vice president. Again, it’d be, he’s awful presumptuous, man. So there’s a lot of really qualified women out there.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.