Biden says compatibility key to running mate choice

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Democrats want Biden to pick Warren as running mate, poll says

Democrats want Biden to pick Warren as running mate, poll says

When it comes to his search for a running mate, Joe Biden appears to be searching for a partner more than anything else.

“I’m looking for someone who has strengths that I don’t have as much. I’m not afraid to go out and find someone who knows more than I know about a subject,” the former vice president shared in an interview with Snapchat’s political program "Good Luck America" that was posted Wednesday by Vanity Fair.

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For weeks the presumptive Democratic nominee’s said that naming someone with the experience to be able to immediately take over as president is essential. But he’s also highlighted that he’s looking for someone with whom he can build a strong personal connection and working relationship.

“When it comes to the vice presidency, I'm looking for someone to be a partner in progress. Someone who's simpatico in how they see the challenges the country faces. Someone who is ready to be president at a moment's notice,” Biden said last month.

The former longtime senator from Delaware who went on to serve for eight years as vice president under President Obama is basically looking to find a candidate who can recreate the close bonds he enjoyed in the White House with Obama.

“Barack used to always kid. He talked about, we make up for each other’s weaknesses. He didn’t have many. I had more weaknesses than he did. But all kidding aside, you know, the reason he picked me, as he pointed out, was he said he was convinced that I’d never walk in the Oval Office and be intimidated by the office. I’d always tell him the truth and I’d always do it privately. I’d tell him what I think,” Biden shared in his Snapchat interview.

And he highlighted “that’s the kind of thing I’m looking at. The only thing I know a little bit about is the office of the vice presidency. And I’m looking for someone who I can feel comfortable having as the last person in the room giving me advice.”

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Biden – who made news during the Democratic presidential primary debate in March when he announced that he’d name a woman as the party’s vice presidential nominee – has said he’s considering around a dozen female candidates.

While the final decision is Biden’s, there’s been plenty of polling of what Democratic voters are hoping to see in the vice presidential nominee.

The latest survey comes from CNN, which showed that 38 percent of Democratic voters said naming a candidate who brings racial and ethnic diversity to the ticket is one of the top two traits they'd like to see in Biden's pick. Thirty-four percent named executive experience as a leading trait, with 32 percent saying balancing the ticket ideologically is a top two criteria, and 31 percent said that a candidate who represented the future was a crucial component.