Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat, has reportedly been asked to undergo the lengthy personal-vetting process expected of vice presidential candidates.
According to CBS News, presumed presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden will ask Ms. Klobuchar to go through “a rigorous multi-week review of her public and private life and work by a hand-picked group of Biden confidantes.”
The team would comb through Ms. Klobuchar’s tax papers, votes, speeches, personal relationships and other matters for potential red flags or scandals.
It was not clear from the CBS report whether Ms. Klobuchar has consented to the process.
Citing “a senior Biden campaign aide,” the network reported that the requesting of information from potential running mates already “is underway.”
Other potential running mates — Mr. Biden has publicly vowed that his running mate will be a woman — will likely be vetted, but CBS reported that at least one person has refused Mr. Biden.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire declined, a person familiar with her decision told CBS.
Ms. Klobuchar ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination against Mr. Biden and others.
She dropped out after the first four contests and then endorsed Mr. Biden, a sequence of events that played a key role in helping Mr. Biden win most of the Super Tuesday primaries over socialist Bernie Sanders and sweep to the nomination.
Team Biden also has begun formal interviews with Rep. Val Demings, Florida Democrat.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said on NBC’s “Today” this week that she had had “just an opening conversation” with the Biden campaign.
She The People, an activist group of black women, blasted Ms. Klobuchar as a “dangerous and reckless choice.”
The group has been pushing for Mr. Biden to tap a black woman as his running mate. In March, the group released a poll of its members that showed former Georgia House Democratic leader Stacey Abrams and Sen. Kamala D. Harris, California Democrat, as its top picks.
Ms. Abrams and Ms. Harris are black. Ms. Demings also is black.
“The Biden campaign just made a dangerous and reckless choice,” Aimee Allison, vice president and founder of She The People, said of vetting Ms. Klobuchar. “The decision ignores everything we have on the line in November and the lessons Democrats must learn from 2016.”
“To choose Klobuchar as vice president risks losing the very base the Democrats need to win, most centrally women of color, and could be a fatal blow to the Democrats’ chance to win the White House,” she said. “There is still time for Biden’s campaign to get on track. The Biden campaign needs to choose a woman of color who will solidify the multiracial coalition we need to win.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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