U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Wednesday that she would accept an offer to be Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s running mate if the position were offered.
‘Yes,’ said Warren when she was asked how she would respond if Biden asked her to serve as his vice president.
Biden, who was Barack Obama’s vice president, has vowed to pick a woman to be his running mate and said he would name a committee to help him vet a shortlist of names soon.
Joe Biden (L) and Elizabeth Warren clashed on numerous occasions during the Democratic candidate televised debates
Warren endorsed Biden earlier on Wednesday, joining key Democrat figures including Senator Bernie Sanders and Obama to back Biden in the up-coming 2020 general election, in which Biden is all-but-certain to face down President Donald Trump.
‘We’re all in this together now,’ Warren said in her endorsement.
In the video announcing her support, Warren emphasized Biden’s empathy, contrasting his leadership style to that of President Donald Trump’s. ‘Empathy matters,’ she said.
Warren ended her own bid for the White House last month and became known for championing detailed and sweeping liberal reforms which she also touched on in the interview with MNSBC in which she said she would join Biden’s ticket.
‘You know me. You know what I’ve been fighting for all of my career,’ she said so that hard working people across this country get a real chance and that opportunity doesn’t just go to a handful of folks at the top, it really does go to everybody in this country, and that we make the investments to make that happen.’
Biden and Warren’s relationship goes back as far as 2005 when the pair clashed during a hearing over a Bankruptcy bill while Biden was a senator and Warren was still a professor at Harvard Law school
During the interview, the senator described how her relationship with Biden goes back a long time, during which they have had many conversations about how to make America an inclusive country for everyone.
‘My conversations with Joe Biden long pre-date this presidential race, they pre-date the 2016 [election]. We’ve had a lot of conversations about how we build an America going forward with lots of different pieces and parts to that,’ she explained.
These conversions with Biden can now resume after she herself dropped out of the race, Warren said. ‘I’m in this fight to help in any way I can. To help on the policy front. To help by getting out there and talking [to people].’
She told the MNSBC anchor that the coronavirus crisis has shown the need for ‘a leader that we can count on in a crisis. It’s not Donald Trump, it is Joe Biden,’ she concluded.
Before the end of the segment, the anchor got in one last question, asking: ‘If he asked you to be his running mate, would you say yes?’ Without hesitation, Warren gave a resounding – ‘Yes.’
Biden has been working to win the support of more liberal parts of the party ahead of his battle against President Donald Trump in the November 3 election, and Warren’s endorsement came days after Biden embraced some of the senator’s policies to combat the coronavirus.
These plans include cancelling student debt, expanding Social Security benefits during the pandemic, and overhauling the nation’s bankruptcy system which she promoted during her own campaign.
Warren joins Democrat party big-hitters such as former President Barack Obama (pictured in his endorsement video) and Senator Bernie sanders, a candidate himself until last week, in endorsing Joe Biden
Biden and Warren’s relationship has been tested over the years. As far back as 2005, the pair clashed during a congressional hearing on a bankruptcy bill while Warren was a Harvard Law School professor and expert on the topic, and Biden was a Delaware senator.
When Warren became a senator she said that Biden, who swore her into office, recalled the incident, saying: ‘Joe Biden was there at the very moment I became a Senator, and when he did, he said “you gave me hell! And you’re gonna do a great job.”‘
A spokesman for the Biden campaign declined to comment on Warren’s remarks in the MNSBC interview.
Several people likely to be in contention for the running mate role have expressed their openness to being considered.
‘I would be an excellent running mate,’ former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said in an interview published by Elle on Wednesday. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer told NBC News on Wednesday that she was ‘fortunate’ to be considered for the position.