Joe Biden Commits To Picking A Woman As His Vice Presidential Running Mate

Source: MANDEL NGAN / Getty

Sunday night marked the first one-on-one debate of the 2020 Democratic primary, which took place in Washington D.C. between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of the night’s early discussions surrounded the coronavirus and how they would handle things if they were in the position that Donald Trump is now–but eventually, they moved onto other topics that you’d expect for a regular, not-during-a-pandemic debate.

Probably the most headline-worthy takeaway of the night was Joe Biden making a declaration that he committed to naming a woman as his Vice Presidential running mate.

This led to Bernie Sanders being asked the same question, with the moderator asking if he would commit to that, too. He did not give a definitive answer like his competitor, but he did say, “in all likelihood, I will.” Sanders added that he would not solely pick a woman just for the sake of doing it, but assured supporters that he would make certain “we have a progressive woman” and said that his “very strong tendency” is to go in that direction.

“I commit that I will in fact pick a woman to be vice president,” Biden said while answering a question about what he’d do to support woman if he was elected president. “There are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow. I would pick a woman to be my vice president.”

Though he doesn’t say it outright, it’s pretty clear that Yang was promised some sort of shot at Vice President in exchange for endorsing Biden–but that’s not happening now.