Former Vice President Joe Biden said Sen. Elizabeth Warren would be on his list of potential VP nominees, although he claims she'd be "very angry at my having said that."
Why it matters: Biden told "Axios on HBO" that he would base his VP choice on lessons learned from his time serving as No. 2 to former President Barack Obama.
- "[Y]ou have to have somebody who knows that you and he or she are totally simpatico in terms of your ideology, where you want to take the country, your vision for the country, and you have to be able to turn over significant responsibility to them," Biden said.
- "The days of being able to turn to just your Cabinet and do this don't work. ... I don't think there's enough bandwidth for that. You have to be able to say, look, you're my vice president. Take care of this. You have presidential authority to do it. That's what the president did with me."
- "Look, all the power of vice president is reflective. There's no inherent power. It's all reflective. And so you have to have someone who has your confidence and you have their confidence, and that's the most important criteria."
The bottom line: Biden acknowledged it would be valuable for the Democrats to have a woman or person of color on the ticket, but said it'd be presumptuous for him to name a potential VP list without being the nominee.
- I'd add Senator Warren to the list. I'd add all. But she's going to be very angry at my having said that. ... The question is would she add me made to her list. You know."
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