Former Obama-era National Security Adviser Susan Rice said on Friday that Donald Trump's supporters in the Senate should be consigned to the "trash heap of history", noting that the upcoming 2020 presidential election is about "getting Joe Biden in the White House", a man she believes is capable of “healing and unifying the nation.”
Rice is said to be on a shortlist of possible candidates for Biden's VP. The Dem candidate is reportedly being pressured to choose a black woman as his running mate amid nationwide Black Lives Matter anti-police-brutality protests. Reports by various media outlets claim that the number of Democrats demanding Biden choose woman of color is rising.
Potential Biden VP Susan Rice says that the goal of this election is to “remove Donald Trump and consign those who supported him in the Senate to the trash heap of history.”
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 19, 2020
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Despite that her son is a Trump supporter, mother and child have repeatedly noted that their disparate political views do not affect their relationship.
Earlier, Rice was reported to be on the shortlist for Biden's potential vice president picks, as she indicated in May that she would agree to become his running mate, if asked. Among other candidates, there are reportedly Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and California Senator Kamala Harris.
While Biden faces pressure to pick an African-American woman amid anti-racism and anti-police-brutality protests across the country, reports suggest that there are two black women on the list: Florida Rep. Val Demings and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar recently announced that she would not seek to be Biden's VP pick, citing the ongoing national debate about racial injustice and police brutality and suggesting that the presidential hopeful should opt for a woman of colour.
Quardricos Driskell, a federal lobbyist and professor of politics with the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, believes that Sen. Klobuchar was the "likable Mid-westerner candidate".
"She is keenly aware that Democrats need to regain the hearts of the Mid-western voter and she ran her presidential campaign as such. However, while she was a strong candidate during the race and would have been a strong vice-presidential nominee, some viewed her record on issues of race, inequality, and her commitment to confronting systemic racism in the future as mottled. Sen. Klobuchar became a much more of an unlikely candidate for the vice-presidential nomination in the wake of George Floyd’s death given her decision not to prosecute the same Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd after the fatal shooting of another man while she served as a county prosecutor. And while she denies having not declined the case, she was in the role while running for the US Senate", Driskell adds.
According to the professor, Sen. Klobuchar is a shrewd politician, who was able "to assess the moment, see the criticism, and publicly make the decision to withdraw".
"In some aspects, I’m sure her endorsement of a black woman for vice president slot helps her politically especially given the new era of Black Lives Matter", he says.
