Sunny Hostin Asks Stacey Abrams if Biden Picking White VP Would Be ‘Slap in the Face’ to Black Women Voters
The View‘s Sunny Hostin pointedly asked former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams if it would be a “slap in the face” to black women voters if former Vice President Joe Biden were to select a white woman as his running mate.
On Wednesday’s edition of the ABC chat show, Abrams once again extolled the virtues of her own qualifications for the job of vice president, directly answering the criticism that she’s only ever held statewide office.
Abrams said that “national experience can be measured in multiple ways,” and that “what we want is capacity.”
“They want competence, and we want skills and I would challenge anyone to look at my resume and understand that I have built three national organizations in the last year and a half, tackling the most fundamental questions in our country,” Abrams said.
Hostin then brought up recent remarks by Biden in which he told a local news editor in Pittsburgh that he would make Michelle Obama his running mate “in a heartbeat,” but when he was asked if he would “commit” to naming a woman of color to his ticket, said he would only guarantee it would be a woman.
“How important is it, do you think, for Biden to make that commitment, and do you think that not choosing a woman of color, a black woman actually, is a slap in the face to the black female voters who are credited with really reviving his candidacy?” Hostin asked.
“I think Vice President Biden is going to make a smart choice, and I appreciate the fact that he has lifted up women as being a necessary partner in this,” Abrams said, but then added “I would share your concern about not picking a woman of color, because women of color, particularly black women, are the strongest part of the Democratic Party, the most loyal.”
“But that loyalty isn’t simply how we vote,” Abrams continued. “It’s how we work, and if we want to signal that that work will continue, that we’re going to reach not just to certain segments of our community, but to the entire country, then we need a ticket that reflects the diversity of America.”
Biden has said in the past that he would prefer a woman of color as his running mate, and has teased Sen. Kamala Harris as his VP on several occasions, but some have taken his recent reticence to make that explicit pledge — along with his affirmative pledge to name a black woman to the Supreme Court — as signs he might be leaning a different way.
But Biden is working off of an extensive list of women who are eminently qualified, many of whom have significant support among the Democratic base. No matter who Biden selects, all of those candidates and their supporters need to feel that they were given fair consideration.
Abrams’ initial response — “I think Vice President Biden is going to make a smart choice” — is the operative one. Whomever Biden ends up choosing, publicly culling the list ahead of time doesn’t make a lot of sense if he’s trying to avoid political slaps in the face.
Watch the clip above via ABC.
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