Biden Has Selected a Running Mate, Will Reveal Today
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: If you are just joining us breaking news in the 2020 race. Joe Biden has made it official telling his top advisers that he has selected the woman he thinks will help him win the White House this November. And he's set to reveal her name as early as today. We here at CNN of course are closely watching all the developments, making, you know, phone calls, trying to get to the bottom of who it is. Let's go straight to CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny and also CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash. OK, so, Jeff, first to you, let's just take a minute, let's take a breath, let's not, you know, speculate here. Let's just take a minute on the history here. We know it will be a woman, as he has said. Could be a woman of color. How significant is that?</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, there are a lot of things we do know about the search and the key one is what you just mentioned, that Joe Biden pledged some five months ago to pick a woman. That is in and of itself historic. Whoever his choice is will be the third woman to join a major party ticket as a running mate. Of course, Sarah Palin in the 2008 campaign with John McCain and Geraldine Ferraro, of course, with Walter Mondale. So, this person is immediately etched in history, and that has just an interesting dynamic on the presidency should Joe Biden win in November and certainly on the campaign in the short-term. It is going to be, you know, certainly a different moment in time. And the reason that Joe Biden did that, he made that decision back in March, during his final debate here on CNN with Bernie Sanders. He wanted a bit of a headline there and he also said a few other things in the same moment. He said he is going to appoint an African American woman to the Supreme Court. He said the voices are long past due there. He also said he's going to have a diverse cabinet. So, this is just the first of many choices he is indeed going to make. But we do know that the former Vice President has been having these conversations, one-on-one conversations as well as virtual conversations with every single one of the finalists. And we are told by people close to the process that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer flew to see Joe Biden just about a week or so ago. Kamala Harris the Senator from California, of course, knew him well from running against him, and as well as former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, those were the top contenders as well as other contenders in the mix. So, there were 11 women overall who were seriously vetted here. So, history no matter how you slice it -- Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: And also, Dana, unique because this is a man who has served as Vice President. He knows what goes into doing the job. He knows he had a wonderful relationship with his commander-in-chief, he knows he wants someone with whom he is comfortable, who is loyal and also who can govern alongside him, correct.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, which are very important criteria. And I'll just add another one into that. Is that Joe Biden is not a young man. And he is very well aware of that. And he is also very well aware of the import of his decision because of that. I mean, he is not suggesting that he's going to go anywhere. That he's obviously saying that he is very vital and up to the task. But he also understands reality. And so if you put all of those things into the mix, it gives you a really good sense of why this has been, according to sources I talked to and I know Jeff as well, a pretty difficult decision for Joe Biden to make. Because he understands how high the stakes are. I mean, they're always high when you are the nominee or the presumptive nominee for your party's presidential nomination. You have to pick your running mate, somebody who you don't want to just campaign with but you could very well, you hope, be serving with in the White House. But this takes on a whole different level. But I also think the fact that he was Vice President for eight years and he was a Vice President who had such a good relationship with the top dog is really crucial. I mean he said to me, I went and talked to him in May, right after Memorial Day, and one of the things that he was saying there is that you also have to remember that nothing got out. I mean that there was so many times where he had conversations with President Obama where he was the last one in the room and Obama knew that he could trust Joe Biden, and that nothing would get out and he would give him his real take on things.</s>BALDWIN: Jeff, do you want to quickly add to that?</s>ZELENY: I think what Dana is saying is so important. They had a great relationship at the end. At the beginning they barely knew each other. 12 years ago, at this very point they were just getting to know each other. So, they were both surprised by how quickly they forged this bond. So, this is the beginning of a relationship. The former Vice President, he knows most of the women on that list but not necessarily all that well. So, this is the beginning of a bond. So, it's important I think to think back at the beginning of the Obama/Biden relationship. You know, they knew each other just a very little bit. They had been in the Senate a very short time. They ran against each other. Biden wasn't sure if Obama was up to it. Obama wasn't sure that Biden would necessarily be a good second fiddle, but he turned out to be. So that is I think how we have to think of this relationship starting out. What theirs was 12 years ago.</s>BALDWIN: It's such an important point. Yes. Because we're just having a conversation about how, you know, our friend David Axelrod refers to this as a shotgun marriage. But shotgun marriages can work out. I'm going to thank both of you for now. We'll stay on this story, of course, and as soon as we get word, we'll pass it along. We also have breaking news this afternoon on the future of college football. The Big Ten just announcing it is delaying the fall season. I'll talk to a college football player and a former NFL player on what they make of this crucial decision, next.