Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is expected to announce his 2020 campaign running mate this week — but one Washington insider says he’s already convinced he knows the pick.
It will likely be former first lady Michelle Obama, former Congressman and Fox News contributed Jason Chaffetz predicted on Friday.
While helping to fill in for Fox News host Sean Hannity, guests were asked for their predictions for Biden’s running mate. Conventional picks like Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren were floated — but Chaffetz said the conventional wisdom is wrong.
“I think you’re all wrong. The real answer, I’ll tell you the real answer,” Chaffetz said. “I’m going to tell you the real answer, and I gotta tell you, I worry because I do think it will be Michelle Obama. That’s my guess. That’s my guess.”
Fox News star Tucker Carlson made a similar prediction in November.
“The Democratic Party is ripping itself apart over race and gender and class,” Carlson said at the time. “Michelle Obama, let’s be honest, is one of the only people who could unite the party’s warring factions.”
The headlines this week largely belong to Biden, who is days away from announcing the winner of the veepstakes. The public and private jockeying among the prospective picks has intensified, but expect it to get even hotter before it’s over. Beleaguered Republicans are praying for a flawed pick who would help make the 2020 contest a binary choice instead of a referendum on Trump.
Only an extremely small circle — maybe three or four people — truly knows Biden’s thinking regarding his running mate, and those people aren’t talking, and insider told The Associated Press.
We know for sure that Biden will pick a woman, and he said he would make his decision this week, although his campaign has raised the possibility that a formal announcement wouldn’t come until next week.
Besides the former first lady, the finalists are thought to include Warren, Harris, former national security adviser Susan Rice, and California Rep. Karen Bass.
Many establishment voices are urging Biden to go with Harris, a strong fundraiser who has already been vetted on the presidential stage and been elected statewide multiple times.
Others are pushing Rice, who has never run for public office but has experience working at Biden’s side. Many progressives are hoping for a more “exciting” pick — such as Warren or Bass — who could help energize the party’s left flank.
This marks the last major moment of the 2020 campaign truly under Biden’s control.
Most Americans know Biden from his long tenure. This time, it may be his running mate who gets even more scrutiny. The less time that person has spent on the national stage, the more likely of unforeseen controversy.
Bass, who has never sought national or statewide office, faced tough questions on the Sunday morning talk show circuit about her decades-old travels to Cuba and, more recently, her warm description of its leader Fidel Castro after his death.
As she’s learning, that kind of thing doesn’t play so well in Florida, a vital general election battleground. And that’s before the video surfaced of Bass seeming to praise aspects of Scientology at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Just two of Biden’s finalists — Harris and Warren — have been vetted already under the bright lights of presidential politics. For everyone else, there is a real element of uncertainty. With every risk, however, there could be a reward.
The Associated Press contributed to this article