Democratic debate: Biden vows woman running mate

WASHINGTON: Former vice-president Joe Biden on Sunday committed to selecting a woman as his running mate if he won the Democratic presidential nomination and to appointing the first African American woman justice of the Supreme Court.

Indian American Senator Kamala Harris has figured in many speculative lists of Biden’s running mate, along with Senator Amy Klobuchar, Georgia state politician Stacey Abrams; and former deputy attorney general Sally Yates.

“I will pick a woman to be vice president,” Biden said at a Democratic presidential debate. Rival Bernie Sanders said he would “in all likelihood” do the same.

Biden and Sanders came to the Sunday debate as key rivals for the Democratic nomination even though Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard remains in the race technically.

The Sunday debate took place in CNN’S studios in Washington DC instead of Phoenix, Arizona where it was originally scheduled to be held, because of the coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 3,500 Americans, killed at least 65, shut down schools and colleges and upended life.

Both White House hopefuls launched a joint attack on Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, accusing the president of undermining his own scientists with misinformation.

Sanders, the 78-year-old underdog, took a stinging shot at the president, accusing him of fomenting confusion and eroding public trust in a time of crisis.

“We have to shut this president up right now because he’s undermining the doctors and the scientists who are trying to help the American people,” Sanders added, referring to multiple Trump statements at odds with expert views.

Biden essentially agreed, saying: “the existential threat to the United States of America is Donald Trump.”

The next Democratic presidential primaries are set for Tuesday, despite growing worries about the virus outbreak that has forced two states to delay voting.