Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has consulted with his former boss, Barack Obama, about choosing the right candidate for his vice if he were to be elected as president of the United States.
Biden has, on several occasions, pledged to pick a woman as his running mate.
Biden, who has managed to extend his advantage over his sole remaining challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders, revealed some aspects of his discussions during a fundraising call for over 70 Georgia donors on Sunday night.
When discussing his pick for a running mate, Biden said, “I have to start that vetting process relatively soon, meaning in a matter of weeks.
“I think there will be a group that is in excess of six or seven people that I look at,” Biden said, according to Reuters.
“They have to be prepared,” Biden added. “Once I pick someone, God willing, if I’m the nominee, that there’s not going to be any snafu.”
Last month at the CNN-Univision debate in Washington, Biden said: “I commit that I’d pick a woman as vice president. There are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow. I would pick a woman to be vice president.”
Biden told reporters that he thought there were plenty of capable female candidates fit for the job.
“And the most important thing—and I’ve actually talked to Barack about this—the most important thing is that there has to be someone who, the day after they’re picked, is prepared to be President of the United States of America if something happened,” Biden said on March 22, according to The Hill.
At a CNN town hall in February in Manchester, New Hampshire, Biden remarked about how he would like his relationship with his vice to be similar to that he and Obama had, calling it “simpatico,” NBC reported.
Biden said it his relationship with Obama worked so well because there was hardly any disagreement over major issues, although there was sometimes disagreement on tactics, Biden said on the call.
Biden said he is fully confident the elections will take place in November this year.
“I know there’s a lot of rumors and speculation as to, is the other guy going to try to postpone the election in November and all that. There’s no need to do that. You know, we voted in the middle of the Civil War, we voted in the middle of World War One and Two,” Biden said.
“The idea of postponing the electoral process seems to me out of the question.”