Reporters in Delaware are seeing signs the announcement by former Obama Vice President Joe Biden of his vice presidential running mate for the Democrat ticket is imminent with a Wilmington hotel being set up for an event by a known Biden campaign vendor. Other reports state that the campaign has chosen staff for the veep pick and support groups are prepping ads.
Biden has held off choosing a vice president candidate until just days before the delayed start of the Democrat convention in Milwaukee now set for Monday. The convention was pushed back a month from July due to the pandemic.
The New York Times posted photos and a report Tuesday of the late night prep at the Hotel du Pont:
The scene last night pic.twitter.com/NmDaTASORG
— Katie Glueck (@katieglueck) August 11, 2020
TRENDING: The Choice in 2020: President Trump Who Created the GREATEST Economic Recovery EVER vs. Joe Biden Who Was Behind WORST Economic Recovery Since the Great Depression
NEW: hi from Wilmington, where secretive preparations are underway for event at Hotel du Pont, a place Biden has frequented throughout his career.
It could be for anyone. But we did see vendors the Biden campaign has used. pic+quick story w/ @thomaskaplan https://t.co/wMFqbdEpdl— Katie Glueck (@katieglueck) August 11, 2020
Brief Times excerpt:
Just before midnight on Monday, workers darted in and out a side door of the grand old Hotel du Pont, pausing for brief cigarette breaks or a chat, then getting back to setting up for an unspecified event. The effort had been underway for hours, at least. “Can’t tell you,” one man said when asked why everyone was working so late.
CBS reporter Bo Erickson took a couple photos outside the hotel Tuesday:
Following up on NYT scoop, our @BoKnowsNews just snagged these pics of an event production truck outside Wilmington’s Hotel du Pont…
(The vendor has been used in the past by Biden’s campaign.) pic.twitter.com/sxmAJAsOat
— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) August 11, 2020
Meanwhile CNBC reports team Biden is gearing up for the big announcement (excerpt):
…In Wilmington, Delaware, the Biden campaign has assembled a diverse team of nine campaign pros who will serve as the top aides to the as-yet-unannounced vice presidential pick.
Most are familiar faces in Bidenland: Veteran Democratic message crafter Liz Allen will serve as the VP nominee’s communications director, while former Obama White House advance aides Ryan Montoya and Evan Glover will handle her scheduling and advance…
…Elsewhere in the Democratic political ecosystem, Biden surrogates and fundraising committees are gearing up to blanket the airwaves with both a charm offensive to promote the pick, and a zone defense against what they anticipate will be an immediate onslaught of negative attacks from the Trump campaign…
Biden, who committed back in March to choosing a woman for his vice presidential running mate, is under intense pressure to pick a Black woman.
Tea leaf readers are noting the absence from the Democrat convention speaker line-up announced Tuesday of one Black woman thought to be a leading contender, former Obama national security advisor and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, as well as the absence of two Black women with outside chances, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) and Rep. Val Demings (D-FL).
FWIW, the three potential veeps NOT listed on the #Dem convention schedule are: @AmbassadorRice, @KarenBassTweets and @RepValDemings. Normally that would indicate that the pick is one of those three. pic.twitter.com/sT8h6eEcgG
— howardfineman (@howardfineman) August 11, 2020
C-SPAN video of Biden in 1990 at the Hotel du Pont announcing his Senate reelection campaign by observing he announced his first Senate bid at the Hotel du Pont in 9172 and has used the hotel since then as Biden tradition.
BIG BIDEN ANNOUNCEMENT IN HOTEL duPONT BALLROOM IN WILMINGTON DE:
July 30, 1990: “I look around this room & a lot of you were here in this same hotel in 1972. But a couple of things have changed. Back then I had plenty of room on the podium. No one was here to cover the speech” pic.twitter.com/kh0rNrEiAo— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) August 11, 2020
