The Note: Veep window opens new phase of campaign

Team Biden has gotten more mileage than anyone can hope for out of a veepstakes.

August 11, 2020, 6:00 AM

The TAKE with Rick Klein

The campaign about President Donald Trump will be about someone and something else for a while. That's one upshot of the oft-delayed running-mate rollout of former Vice President Joe Biden, whose deliberations are pushing up ever closer against the start of his convention next week.

With an announcement coming any day, Team Biden has gotten more mileage, by some metrics, than anyone can hope for out of a veepstakes.

It's been a relatively leak-free operation that, according to an ABC News tally, has featured his potential running mates helping raise at least $17.9 million and counting for the campaign. The process has expanded a diverse circle of surrogates to include several women who will wind up being also-rans.

PHOTO: In this July 28, 2020, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in Wilmington, Del.
In this July 28, 2020, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in Wilmington, Del. Despite all the secrecy, the speculation and the fierce jockeying behind the scenes, presidential running mates rarely sway an election. But as the political world awaits the imminent announcement of Biden's vice presidential pick, there is a real sense among his allies and adversaries that this decision may matter more in 2020.
Andrew Harnik/AP

On the other side of the ledger sits the oppo dumped on a few contenders, and what it means that so much of it came out while Biden was looking to keep the party as united as possible.

Plus, while Biden limited his own choices when he committed five months ago to picking a female running mate, he has seen his own flexibility limited by a flurry of statements urging him in a particular direction.

"Failing to select a Black woman in 2020 means you will lose the election," a group of Black men including Sean Combs, Charlamagne Tha God, Cedric the Entertainer and George Floyd's family attorney Ben Crump wrote in an open letter to Biden this week.

The letter states that Black women "are not just being vetted in this VP process but unfairly criticized and scrutinized." Biden will need his running mate to handle that -- and also to display an ability to not make news.

Between the running-mate unveiling and next week's convention, Biden and the woman he chooses for his ticket will be at the center of the next few news cycles -- and the campaign is hoping for disciplined messaging.

Basement jokes aside, Biden has benefited greatly from his relative lack of visibility in recent months. That is set to change -- starting when Biden chooses someone to join him in the spotlight.

The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks

A month ago, the president blasted NASCAR for its decision to ban the Confederate flag. For years, he has argued in favor of keeping statues honoring Confederate war generals too.

Monday he doubled down on the idea that he is seriously considering accepting his party's nomination for a second term at the site that was a turning point in the Civil War, where Union soldiers defeated Confederate men and went on to win the war.

Maybe all the symbols mean little to this president. On the recent debates about flag and statues, he has argued in broad strokes about freedom of speech and the preservation of history. But the symbols do mean a lot to many in this country and can represent, in broad strokes, either a legacy of hate or celebration of freedom.

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair wrote in response to the buzz, "Trump ought to deliver on a national testing strategy, abandon his reckless executive orders which would slash Social Security and cut weekly unemployment benefits for struggling workers. ... Until he does that, Pennsylvania families won't care about his political speeches."

PHOTO: A statue of a Confederate soldier sits outside the Parker County Courthouse in Weatherford, Texas, Friday, July 31, 2020.
A statue of a Confederate soldier sits outside the Parker County Courthouse in Weatherford, Texas, Friday, July 31, 2020.
Tony Gutierrez/AP

Apart from the obvious historic significance of Gettysburg there's also the reality that Pennsylvania is a key battleground state where Trump won by less than a percent in 2016.

"The least expensive place that you could do it would be at the White House. This is a government expense," he said as if acknowledging that mixing campaigning and campaign expenses with official government and tax-payer funder work is, yes, generally frowned upon, if not also illegal.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Trump admitted, in a way, that the other highly controversial spot he is publicly weighing could be a legal and ethical minefield.

The TIP with Kendall Karson

Between the size of the field, the record number of women candidates and the impact of COVID-19, the presidential primary has been nothing short of historic.

But on Tuesday, a primary season that stretched more than half of the year, and two months beyond its intended end date -- at least on the Democratic side -- will come to a close. Connecticut's nominating contests, which were postponed from April 28 to June 2, then to Aug. 11, will bookend the primary less than a week before back-to-back conventions mark the formal start of the Biden-Trump matchup.

PHOTO: In this file photo taken on July 28, 2020 US Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at the William "Hicks" Anderson Community Center in Wilmington, Delaware.
In this file photo taken on July 28, 2020 US Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at the William "Hicks" Anderson Community Center in Wilmington, Delaware.
Andrew Caballero-reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

For Biden, the primary has been settled since April 8, when the last of his rivals dropped out, stamping out any speculation about a contested convention. At Biden's coronation next week, which comes after four years of party infighting and debate and reform over the nominating process -- sparked by an effort to unite two factions of the party after a bitter 2016 primary race between Hillary Clinton, the party's nominee, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. -- those changes won't matter too much.

Biden has secured 2,634 delegates ahead of the Constitution State's primary, according to an ABC News analysis, far more than the supermajority of pledged delegates -- about 2,378 -- needed to allow superdelegates to vote on the first ballot since their input cannot influence the outcome vote. That feat finishes a contest that started in a far different place, and begins what will be an unprecedented general election.

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. Tuesday morning's episode features University of Michigan defensive back Hunter Reynolds, who explains why he wants to play college football this fall despite calls from public health officials to cancel the season. ABC News' Jordana Miller joins us from Jerusalem to discuss the resignation of the Lebanese government following last week's explosion in Beirut. And, ABC News Senior Washington reporter Devin Dwyer tells us why the Postal Service is coming under scrutiny ahead of Election Day. http://apple.co/2HPocUL.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

  • President Donald Trump participates in a phone call with U.S. sheriffs at 12:30 p.m.
  • Polls close in Georgia at 7 p.m.
  • Polls close in Vermont at 7 p.m.
  • Polls close in Connecticut at 8 p.m.
  • Polls close in Minnesota at 8 p.m. CT
  • Polls close in Wisconsin at 8 p.m. CT
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