WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden told reporters on Tuesday he would name his running mate in the first week of August, days before he formally accepts his party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention.
Biden’s search for a vice presidential candidate has drawn intense scrutiny, in part because he would be the oldest president in US history at 78 years old as of Inauguration Day.
Biden has vowed to select a woman to join his ticket ahead of November’s election against Republican President Donald Trump.
Earlier, former vice president and democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden has said Donald Trump is the first racist to become a US president in the country’s history.
Biden, who was vice president under Barack Obama, the first Black US president, fielded a question at a Service Employees International Union roundtable from a healthcare worker concerned about the Republican president calling the coronavirus pandemic the “China virus.”
He responded by saying it was “absolutely sickening” how Trump “deals with people based on the color of their skin, their national origin, where they’re from.”
He added: “No sitting president’s ever done this. Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed, and they’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has.”
Trump campaign senior adviser Katrina Pierson fired back, calling Biden’s comments “an insult to the intelligence of Black voters” given the onetime senator’s past work with segregationist lawmakers. She said Trump “loves all people” and “works hard to empower all Americans.”
