Former Vice President Joe Biden has vowed to pick a woman as his vice presidential candidate if he wins the Democratic presidential nomination in which he is currently leading against Bernie Sanders.
The race to win the Democratic presidential nomination has reduced to a direct contest between Biden and Vermont Senator Sanders. Both of them clashed during a Democratic primary presidential debate hosted by the CNN.
"I would pick a woman to be my vice president," Biden said in response to a question during the debate.
"I committed that if I'm elected president have an opportunity to appoint someone to the courts will I'll appoint the first black woman to the courts. It's required that they have representation now. It's long overdue, he asserted.
Secondly, if I'm elected president my cabinet, my administration will look like the country. And I commit that I will, in fact, pick a woman to be vice president. There are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow, Biden said.
In 2008, the then Republican nominee John McCain had picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. McCain lost to Barack Obama, who was elected twice in 2008 and 2012.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first presidential nominee of a major political party. In the 2016 presidential race more than half a dozen women entered the Democratic primary fray, including Indian-origin Senator Kamala Harris and Hindu Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
When posed the same question, Sanders did not give a confirmed answer on selecting a woman as his running mate.
"The vice president committed to picking a woman as his running mate. If you get the nomination will you? he was asked.
In all likelihood I will. For me it's not just nominating a woman, it is making sure that we have a progressive woman and there are progressive women out there. So my very strong tendency is to move in that direction, Sanders said.
