Joe Biden’s Tough Task: Picking A Right Veep To Help Heal America
Last week Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said on MSNBC that she has told presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden she does not want to be considered as a potential running mate. Klobuchar’s past as an aggressive prosecutor in Minneapolis would have made her a controversial choice for the role in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, and her comments on MSNBC alluded obliquely to that political reality:
“After what I’ve seen in my state, what I’ve seen across the country, this is a historic moment and America must seize on this moment. I truly believe, as I actually told the vice president last night when I called him, that I think this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket. There are so many incredibly qualified women, but if you want to heal this nation right now, my party, yes, but our nation, this is sure a hell of a way to do it.”
Klobuchar is not the only politician who has reacted to nationwide Black Lives Matter protests by suggesting that Biden (who has previously said he wants a woman to be his VP nominee) should choose a non-white running mate. Her belief that doing so would “heal this nation,” though, suggests that she has not given much attention to the protests’ substance.
Protesters’ demands vary city by city, but they share a few themes. Most directly, marchers have called for the prosecution of the police officers who killed Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, and for action against officers who’ve become violent during otherwise peaceful protests. At the level of policy, there are pushes for police departments to be dissolved and/or for large parts of their funding to be diverted to social services. Activists, legislators, and writers have also raised the connections between Floyd’s death and other manifestations of systemic racism— issues like school segregation, housing segregation, and economic inequality—that have gone unaddressed, or have been addressed inadequately, for decades. Protesters have fought for the removal of statues and monuments that celebrate soldiers and political officials from the Confederacy; within workplaces, Black employees have pressured executives to diversify predominately white management levels.