With the Democratic National Convention set to kick off next week, former Vice President Joe Biden will announce his running mate in the coming days, Paige Hill, surrogate communications director for the campaign, told Cheddar.
"There are a number of diverse, dynamic, incredibly highly qualified women in this process and we will be lucky to announce very soon who will be joining us," she said.
Biden committed to selecting a woman as his running mate back in March and his shortlist reportedly includes Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice.
When it comes to defending Biden's pick against impending attacks from the Trump administration, Hill said the campaign's focus will be to remind voters of the future VP's "hard work."
"Whoever she is, we are going to support her and make it clear she has worked very hard to get to where she is," Hill explained.
While Milwaukee was set to be the home of this year's convention, the coronavirus pandemic has forced the nominating ceremony online. Hill said the campaign is taking the move in stride and is excited about Biden's chance to reach voters who otherwise might "not have felt part of a party convention before."
"You won't need a floor pass to experience the biggest moments up close," she noted. "We are going to reach folks where they are, talking about the issue they most care about right now."
Biden is expected to accept the nomination for president from his home state of Delaware.
As the DNC is set to take off a week before the RNC, Hill said the focus isn't on worrying about Republicans replicating their virtual conference, it's about rallying behind the person they believe will lead the U.S. out of a grim state.
"A convention of hope and leadership and for a leader that will unite us on day one," she stated.
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled to allow the controversial Texas abortion law to remain in effect, banning abortion at six weeks and allowing any private citizen to sue a person or doctor aiding or abetting someone seeking an abortion. Outraged at this decision, California Governor Gavin Newsom is working to draft a proposal in line with the law as it relates to guns. Shawn Hubler, California correspondent at the New York Times, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Even as tech giant Google implements a vaccination mandate, charging its employees to declare their vaccine status within a time frame or risk dismissal, the federal government is tangled up in the court system trying to impose one of its own. Cindy Cohn, the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Harry Nelson, founder and managing partner of Nelson Hardiman LLP, joined Cheddar to debate the ethics, efficacy, and legality surrounding the issue. While Cohn noted that she thinks the federal mandate might be legally sound, her organization is also concerned with a separate question of privacy. "At EFF what we're most interested in is the digital surveillance that's going along with some of these attempts to try to track and confirm whether people are vaccinated or not," she said.
