With the 2016 election finally starting to wind down, there’s a larger interest in which people Hillary Clinton, who is leading polls and increasingly likely to win the election, will choose for her cabinet. And the first name to appear on her list is a very familiar one.
Despite Clinton’s claims that she hasn’t given thought to cabinet positions since she’s “a little superstitious about that,” a new report from Politico suggests that she looks to appoint Vice President Joe Biden as the next secretary of state. According to a source familiar with the planning, the campaign is trying to figure out a way to approach Biden for the job.
Biden has respect from his colleagues and experience on his side. He spent nearly 44 years in politics between his six terms in the Senate (having chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a senator), and his eight years as vice president.
“He’d be great, and they are spending a lot of time figuring out the best way to try to persuade him to do it if she wins,” a source said.
Clinton and Biden have clashed on how to handle certain situations when she was secretary of state. Biden previously shot down the idea of working in a Clinton administration, instead looking to focus on leading a national effort to cure cancer (though that could change).
“I’m not going to stay on in the administration,” Biden said in September. “What Hillary talked about is, as I understood it, me being able to have the same authority over elements of her administration from the outside that I have now from the inside, to be able to coordinate those efforts.”