Joe Biden’s presidential campaign will not announce the presumptive Democratic nominee’s running mate this week, either, according to a new report from Fox News, as insiders claim Biden’s top allies are “waging war” against Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Biden’s most likely vice presidential pick.
On Sunday, The Daily Wire reported that Biden would likely make an announcement related to his veep pick this week — by August 8th — after putting off the selection since mid-July, but Fox News noted Monday that campaign insiders are predicting even further delays.
“An announcement isn’t likely this week,” a source told the network.
Last week, Biden told reporters that the pick would come “the first week in August,” and over the weekend, insiders claimed the Democratic nominee would name his running mate as soon as August 8th, just two weeks before he’s scheduled to accept the nomination at the party’s convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The selection process itself, though, maybe what’s driving the significant delay. According to NBC News, the Biden campaign is still in the running mate vetting process and is planning to hold interviews with key candidates this week, well after they were believed to have made their choice.
At one point, over the weekend, POLITICO says, a Biden aide claimed that “11 women remain in the mix.”
As The Daily Wire noted Sunday, trial balloons, pushing potential candidates like Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) and former Obama administration United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice fell flat after investigators revealed a series of connections between Bass and the Communist Castro regime in Cuba, and stories flooded major news networks noting that Rice’s only incidence of name recognition revolves around a terror attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans, including the United States ambassador, dead.
Harris is seen as the most likely candidate for the veep slot, but Biden allies have reportedly been raising concerns about Harris of late, attacking the California Senator’s presidential ambitions, per CNBC, and waging a “shadow” war on Harris that’s gone straight to the upper echelons of Biden’s campaign — “directly to members of Biden’s VP search committee, led by former Sen. Chris Dodd, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., and Cynthia Hogan, who previously served as counsel to the presumptive Democratic nominee when he was vice president under President Barack Obama.”
“Some remain bitter about her attacks on Biden during primary debates last year, saying they bring into question her loyalty to the former vice president. Others argue that she’s too ambitious and that she will be solely focused on becoming president herself,” CNBC reports.
POLITICO also notes that the pick has gotten personal, with key candidates “jockeying” for Biden’s attention on cable news shows and in private engagements.