Former vice president Joe Biden suggested on Sunday that the Democratic National Committee may need to hold a virtual presidential convention later this year, saying “we may not be able to put 10, 20, 30,000 people in one place.”
Biden, appearing on ABC’s This Week, said that party officials “should be thinking about that right now.” Last week, the DNC announced that it was pushing back its scheduled date by over a month to August 17, despite claiming before that the Milwaukee convention would be held as planned.
Joe Biden tells @GStephanopoulos that Democrats "may have to do a virtual convention. I think we should be thinking about that right now. The idea of holding the convention is going to be necessary."
The convention was rescheduled for August. https://t.co/vsS7Ysi2Gg pic.twitter.com/j7BEV30yFH
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 5, 2020
“The idea of holding the convention is going to be necessary,” Biden added. “ . . . But my point is that, I think you just gotta follow the science. Listen to the experts.”
The DNC’s convention will now happen a week before the RNC convention, which will be held from August 24–27 in Charlotte, N.C. North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley has insisted that his team is “firmly committed to moving forward” with the date.
Biden also said he had begun to vet potential vice presidential candidates after amassing a commanding lead of state delegates. He told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he called Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) to let him know of the situation, which Sanders “appreciated.”
“I was basically apologizing and making it clear that I wasn’t trying to be presumptuous, in any way push him,” Biden said. “And he said he appreciated that.”