May 27, 2020

CNN's Dana Bash has Vice President Joe Biden's first in-person interview since the pandemic, and she asked him about vice presidential candidates.

"Is the vetting starting formally already?" she asked.

"Well, I'm not going to get into detail. Let me put it this way. The four-person commission, they have interviewed a lot of people already," he said.

He described his thinking about the ideal running mate, and sidestepped a question about a black woman.

"You know, I'm going to pick the best person -- look, you've watched me and covered me as vice president, I think the two most important things are, you've got to pick someone who's compatible with you both in terms of your style -- and my style and Barack's style were very different but they were compatible, they worked with one another -- and someone who in fact you would want to be the last person in the room when you're making a tough decision, and who will be loyal in the sense that whatever disagreements you have are between you and the president at that moment. and so that's a process that's underway," he said.

"The president is stepping up his attacks on mail-in voting. How confident are you that the election in November is going to be safe, secure and fair?" Bash asked.

"It depends a lot on whether or not the president follows through with his threats -- for example, cutting off money for the post office for mail-in ballots. This is a guy who sits in the Oval Office, fills out his absentee mail-in ballot and sends it to Florida to vote in the primary. Now, why is that not susceptible to fraud? There's no evidence at all, there's no reason why we can't have an honest, decent vote and the president is always lying about voting. I heard him again. He's talking about how 'all those thousands of people in California going to vote two and three and four times," Biden said.

"The president is trying to paint a picture of you as somebody who's too old to be president and that you're missing a step. How are you going to combat that?" Bash said.

"Watch me," he said.

"Look, I mean, talk about a guy who is missing a step, he's missing something, man. I don't want to get into giving him nicknames, but this is a fella who looks like he's having trouble controlling his own emotions. What worries me is all this stuff about 'Biden's hiding.'

"Well, you know, the fact of the matter is, it's working pretty well so far doing the rules. He's behind in almost every state. Doesn't mean it's going to be that way come November. But the idea that he seems to get more erratic the more he feels like he's behind the curve."

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