Klobuchar quits, makes way for ‘woman of colour’

Chicago, June 19: Amy Klobuchar says she is dropping out of the running to be vice president and urging Democrat Joe Biden to select a woman of colour instead.

The white Minnesota senator, who had seen her prospects fall as racial tensions swept the nation, said on Thursday that she called the presumptive presidential nominee Wednesday night and made the suggestion. Biden had already committed to choosing a woman as his running mate. “I think this is a moment to put a woman of colour on that ticket,” Klobuchar said on MSNBC. “If you want to heal this nation right now — my party, yes, but our nation — this is sure a hell of a way to do it.”

Biden praised Klobuchar in a tweet on Thursday, citing her “grit and determination” and saying, “With your help, we’re going to beat Donald Trump.” Klobuchar’s chances at getting the VP nod diminished after the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

Klobuchar was a prosecutor years ago in the county that includes Minneapolis, and during that period, more than two dozen people — mostly minorities — died during encounters with police. Floyd’s death last month set off days of protests across the country and criticism that as the county's top prosecutor, Klobuchar didn’t charge any of the officers involved in citizen deaths.

Officer Derek Chauvin, who was charged with Floyd’s murder, had been involved in one of those cases, the fatal 2006 shooting of a man accused of stabbing people and aiming a shotgun at police. Chauvin’s case went to a grand jury, as was customary practice for the office at the time, after Klobuchar was elected to the Senate and had left the county attorney’s office.

Mike Freeman, Klobuchar’s successor as prosecutor, has said he made “all prosecutorial decisions” about Chauvin. But critics have pointed to the lack of prosecution as a reason Klobuchar shouldn’t be Biden’s pick.