Appearing Thursday afternoon on CNN, network contributor Van Jones said a decision by former Vice President Joe Biden to name failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams as his 2020 running mate would be an attempt at boosting his “diversity” bona fides.
A partial transcript is as follows:
BROOKE BALDWIN: Let’s start on — good to see you my — friend on this potential Biden/Abrams ticket. Let’s look at it first from the Biden perspective — risks/rewards.
VAN JONES: I think he’s trying to accommodate the fact that people may be saying “do we really want to have another straight white guy? Can’t we have a little bit more diversity?” So, maybe he’s trying to put on a little big of a diversity jacket, have a diversity beard, you know, for himself. I think though, the downsides of it for him are this is very, very risky. First of all, we don’t know enough about the country yet. You got to get through the primary. We’re going to be surprised by who responds to what arguments, which states go which way. This early — to decide you know who’s going to be the best help for you as vice president, I think is very premature. The other problem is, the other part of this demographic profile, is his age. Whoever he picks to be vice president because of his age, hey, listen, that person could be president in 20 minutes.