Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is just about ready to select his vice-president and is expected to formally kick off the process by selecting his vice-president selectional panel by May 1, he announced according to the Washington Post.
The report notes that Biden expects to have his list of potential vice-president candidates narrowed down to about two or three by July.
The former VP has long said that he will pick a woman as his running mate, and several big names, such as former presidential candidates Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, have been floated around.
However, one name that has also been mentioned is former first lady Michelle Obama. Biden helped stoked the fires of speculation when he noted he would take Obama as VP in a “heartbeat.”
“She’s brilliant. She knows the way around. She is a really fine woman. The Obamas are great friends,” he told KDKA earlier this week, according to The Hill.
That being said, that is probably only a wish, as former Obama White House senior adviser Valerie Jarret quickly dismissed that idea when asked about it in an interview with The Hill. There was “no chance” of Michelle Obama being the next vice-president.
“The reason why I’m being so unequivocal is that there just simply has never been a time when she’s expressed an interest in running for office,” Jarrett said, shutting down the idea once and for all. “She’s not demurring here. She’s not being hard to get. She doesn’t want the job.”
Biden himself acknowledged that he didn’t believe Obama would accept the job of VP, with Jarrett adding that the former first lady was much more interested in being a public servant rather than being a politician.
“There is a difference between being a public servant and being a politician, and she has no interest in being a politician,” Jarrett said. “Her husband was interested in being both. She’s only interested in the service component.”