by Frank Holmes, reporter
Vice President Joe Biden has built up an intimidating lead in the 2020 Democratic primaries, and some activists have begun arguing about his vice presidential pick.
Democratic insiders say one name keeps coming up: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
And leaders in both parties say she’s doing all she can to maneuver her way onto the ticket this November.
Most of the 2020 speculation about Hillary Clinton has implied she will try to emerge from a brokered convention as the presidential candidate for a “rematch” against President Donald Trump.
But Democratic strategist Jessica DeLoach told Newsmax TV’s “Spicer & Co” that Clinton has set her sights on the vice presidential office—and she’s bucking for Biden to ask so that she can “say yes.”
Talks may well already be underway, wrote Never Trumper Republican Doug MacKinnon last month.
In early February, he said that Clinton and her team were already “negotiating” with all the candidates “to join the ticket as vice president.”
“I am assured that Clinton is on every shortlist for that position,” he added.
The only question is, “given her ego, would Hillary Clinton settle for being vice president when she twice was within striking distance of being president?” MacKinnon asked. “The answer, I’m told, is an emphatic yes.”
Clinton opened the door to a run for vice president just days later. When Ellen DeGeneres asked the former secretary of state if she’d consider the second spot, Clinton said “probably no”—but then she changed her tune.
“I never say never,” Clinton said, “because I believe in serving my country.”
DeLoach said any run for national office this year would benefit her political futures. “Why would you say no?” DeLoach asked. “She doesn’t have a good reason.”
Not only would Clinton accept the number-two position, some campaign hands say she’s pursuing it ferociously.
“I think she is actually angling to be the vice presidential nominee hoping the party will understand that if Biden is the nominee, they have to have a backup,” said former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu.
Clinton started auditioning for the spot by jumping into the traditional vice presidential role of chief attack dog, savaging Bernie Sanders in multiple media appearances.
“The purpose was to reinforce Biden getting the nomination,” Sununu said. “And then, to reinforce the fact that if Biden does get the nomination, she would add to the ticket more than anyone else.”
D.C. players in Clinton’s orbit are doing all they can to sell the idea.
MacKinnon said a Biden-Clinton pairing would be a “brilliant political move.”
In fact, Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic Party’s “savior.”
The failed 2016 candidate would give the 2020 candidate “the gravitas, delegates and, eventually, millions of votes needed to get them over the finish line on Nov. 5,” he wrote. “If I were in Trump’s world, this scenario would send chills down my spine.”
For his part, President Trump has said “I hope” Hillary Clinton will make a third run for president shortly after his victory.
Voices inside the GOP say that Hillary would use the vice presidential office as a stepping stone to become president without winning an election.
“If Biden begins to fall apart” on the campaign trail this fall, “the party is desperately going to be looking for a third alternative and that’s what she is counting on—either being the alternative at the top of the ticket or being the alternative as number two,” said Sununu, a seasoned Republican operative.
“It’s all structured around the Clinton agenda, not the agenda of the Democratic Party,” he added.
But Biden has a factor with Democrats that Clinton lacks: likability. Democrats worry he could turn out voters that she would turn off.
Hollywood conservative James Woods predicted that the Democrats will wait until Biden wins the election—and then he “will eventually ‘gracefully’ resign as his dementia worsens and… Voila! #MadamePresident at last!”
So I pretty much predicted this. It’ll be #Biden and #Hillary as his vice presidential candidate. He will eventually “gracefully” resign as his dementia worsens and… Voila! #MadamePresident at last! (and in case he gets indicted for his Ukraine corruption, she’ll pardon him… pic.twitter.com/rNbvHyepbi
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) March 4, 2020
If Joe Biden taps Clinton as his running mate, he may have to fight two people for his political survival.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”