- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
(CNN) - Former Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday that in choosing a formula partner, he would prefer someone who was "of color and / or of a different gender."
“Whomever I choose, it will preferably be someone of a different color and / or gender, but I will not make that commitment until I know that the person I am dealing with can trust completely and thoroughly as authentic and be in the same page [than me], ”Biden said as he spoke to a round table of black journalists.
The comment echoed the previous statements he has made. When CNN's Chris Cuomo asked him in July if he is going to have a formula partner, Biden replied: "I think it would be great to have a VP."
But Biden has long given a warning that he would need to have "sympathy" with any future formula partner.
“This is the first thing about being a vice president that I have learned and that there are many things that a president has on his table in the current environment. He needs someone he trusts completely, with whom he has sympathy, have the same approach, political focus, and can be delegated significant authority, ”he told Cuomo.
Biden has been asked repeatedly about a possible future formula partner during the campaign. When a voter asked her in August if she would consider a formula partner, Biden replied that she could immediately think of four women she would consider.
"Look guys, there is no reason not to vote for a presidential candidate," he told the crowd in Las Vegas earlier this month.
He later said: “I can think of four women from the first moment that I would be willing to ask to be vice president of the United States - some of whom are not running now, they are not engaged, they are not aspiring - who in fact have the ability to be president of the United States ”.
During Tuesday's roundtable, Biden also spoke about his previous comments on segregationist senators. Earlier this summer, Biden was criticized after using two segregationist senators as examples of colleagues he could work with during an era in which "at least there was some civility" in the Senate.
"I don't use those examples anymore," he said Tuesday, according to Politico.
He said he is aware of the need to add context to everything he talks about in the seventies and eighties, since he is one of the oldest candidates in the campaign, saying that it is "something scary" that people often do not understand the context .
Also during the round table, Biden said he doesn't know why black voters prefer him or other candidates, but he acknowledged that nothing is certain in a campaign.
"By the way, that doesn't mean it will continue to be that way," he said.
“You can go back and look: when Barack (Obama) beat me in the campaign (in the 2008 primary), you know, I had more black support in South Carolina than anyone else, including him. I was defeated in Iowa and suddenly everything changed. The same could happen. ”
Joe biden