Bumper to bumper on road to election
White House hopeful Joe Biden committed to picking a woman as his vice presidential candidate should he win the Democratic nomination, a race he currently leads against Bernie Sanders.
“If I’m elected president, my cabinet, my administration, will look like the country, and I commit that I will in fact appoint a woman to be vice president. There are a number of women who are qualified to be vice president tomorrow,” Mr Biden, vicepresident to Barack Obama, said during a debate against his leftist rival.
Mr Sanders, for his part, responded by saying that “in all likelihood” he would do the same.
“To me, it’s not just nominating a woman. It is making sure that we have a progressive woman and there are progressive women out there.”
Two women have been chosen as running mates for major party nominees. Democrat Walter Mondale put Geraldine Ferraro on the ticket in 1984, while Sarah Palin was Republican John McCain’s pick in 2008, but both lost their elections.
Among Mr Biden’s possible choices are Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Amy Klobuchar, both former competitors in the battle for this year’s Democratic Party nomination — or even the progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was briefly a frontrunner in the race.
Another possible choice is Stacey Abrams (pictured), a former state legislator from Georgia who narrowly lost the governor’s race there in 2018. Mr Biden went out of his way to praise Ms Abrams after she was chosen to give the official Democratic response to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in 2019.
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Democratic presidential debate took place without an audience and was dominated by the coronavirus. Both men bumped elbows instead of shaking hands to minimise the risk of infection.
Both said they were healthy and are taking concrete steps to keep it that way.
Mr Sanders, 78, noted that he “loves” doing large rallies around the country but has curtailed them and now addresses supporters online. His campaign staff has been working from home and Sanders also noted that, “I’m not shaking hands”.
Mr Biden, 77, said he doesn’t have any of the “underlying conditions” that make the virus especially dangerous and said he was taking precautions that people in their 30s, 60s, or 80s should be doing. Biden said his campaign staff was also working from home and that he was washing his hands “God knows how many times” per day and using hand sanitiser almost as much.
The candidates united in criticising President Trump’s response but differed on how to confront the crisis.
Mr Biden pledged to deploy the military to help with recovery efforts and warned that a federal financial bailout may be necessary.
Mr Sanders argued the government-run health insurance system he has championed would allow the US to respond faster.