Biden says he has ‘short list’ of potential women for VP pick

Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested Tuesday that he is keeping a running list of potential vice presidential picks that includes more than a dozen women.

“There is a short list meaning somewhere between – there’s about 12 and 15 women who I think would be qualified to be president tomorrow,” Biden said during an appearance on ABC’s “The View.”

“I think we’re going to narrow to 11,” he added. “We’re going to start vetting soon.”

“We are going to start vetting soon and there is a shortlist,” Joe Biden tells @TheView on female VP picks, adding they plan to narrow the list down to “about 11.”

Biden adds that he doesn’t “want to start to name people and then raise expectations.” https://t.co/VJfYAT2rJf pic.twitter.com/Vh2AuI9tJ4

— ABC News (@ABC) March 24, 2020

Biden’s remarks came more than a week after he vowed to choose a woman as his running mate should he clinch the Democratic presidential nomination.

He’s made clear in the past that he has his own criteria for choosing a running mate, insisting it’s important to choose someone with whom he is “simpatico” — a point he reiterated Tuesday.

“I just need to make sure that whomever I pick — assuming I’m the nominee, which is not the case yet — that that person is simpatico with where I want to take the nation in terms of domestic and foreign policy,” he said. “And I think there are a number of women who are in that category.”

Biden also said that he has at least four black women in mind as potential Supreme Court justice nominees, though he did name any of them.

Exactly whom Biden is eyeing as a potential running mate is still unclear, though there are a handful of names that have drawn speculation, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), as well as Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).

Biden hasn’t won the 1,991 delegates he needs to secure the Democratic presidential nomination, though he has built a nearly insurmountable delegate lead over his only remaining rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

The pace of the nominating contest has slowed in recent weeks as the coronavirus outbreak has prompted candidates to cancel in-person campaign events and state officials to postpone scheduled primary elections.

But there are signs that Biden is beginning to act like the presumptive Democratic nominee. In addition to beginning his search for a running mate, he is planning to deliver briefings on the coronavirus to act as countermessaging to President Trump’s daily briefings on the crisis.