Biden Aims to Select a Running Mate by Aug. 1: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden hopes to select his running mate by Aug. 1, he told donors at a fundraiser on Wednesday evening.

The presumptive Democratic nominee said the commission he appointed to oversee the search process has interviewed a list of potential candidates, and is now making “the basic cut about whether or not they really want it.”

“They’ve asked a lot of questions,” he said during the fundraiser co-hosted by Pete Buttigieg, one of his former rivals for the Democratic nomination. “Next is for me to have that conversation.”

Biden said the list would then be narrowed and the remaining candidates would be vetted, a process he said would take between six to eight weeks. He has promised to select a female nominee, but he declined on Wednesday to name any of the women under consideration.

Over the past several months, Biden has spoken in depth about the process of selecting a vice president, saying he is looking for a partner who is “simpatico” and capable of stepping into the presidency on day one. He has also discussed the “invasive” nature of the vetting process for the women he is considering.

Biden Asks Feds to Investigate Police Killing (11:28 a.m.)

Joe Biden Wednesday called for a federal investigation into the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being forcibly restrained by police in Minneapolis.

“George Floyd’s life mattered as much as mine, as much as anyone,” he said. The former vice president said Floyd was filmed telling police, “I can’t breathe,” the same words uttered by Eric Garner in 2014 before he died in police custody in New York. He called it “a tragic reminder that this was not an isolated incident but part of an ingrained systemic cycle of injustice.”

Biden said police violence “cuts at the very heart of our sacred beliefs that all Americans are equal in rights and dignity, and it sends a very clear message to the black community and black lives that are under threat every single day.”

Four police officers involved in Floyd’s Monday arrest have been fired, but Biden called for a more thorough investigation by the FBI and the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Protests in the city on Tuesday were dispersed with tear gas. -- Jennifer Epstein

Coming up:

The District of Columbia, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Indiana have primaries scheduled for June 2.

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