Cal Thomas - Questions for Biden’s VP short list

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 6th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Megan Basham.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Commentator Cal Thomas now on Joe Biden and the Veepstakes.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden appears to have painted himself into a corner with his promise to select a woman as his running mate. And based on his reported finalists, it seems sure to be an African American woman. 

This means people with good ideas need not apply, if they don’t fit the predetermined demographic criteria. 

Press reports indicate congresswoman Karen Bass, a Democrat from California, is a leading contender. She chairs the Congressional Black Caucus and, unlike Biden, presents well on TV with her appealing smile and soothing voice.

All candidates have baggage, and Bass has plenty of it—especially when it comes to Cuba. Bass had visited Cuba multiple times in the 1970s when she and Hollywood celebrities were praising the “literacy” and health care programs of the communist dictatorship.

In a “Fox News Sunday” interview, Chris Wallace reminded Bass of her statement on the 2016 death of dictator Fidel Castro. She said—quote—”the passing of the Comandante en Jefe is a great loss to the people of Cuba.”

Bass said that her perspective on Cuba “developed over time” and that she now understands the Castro government “was a brutal regime.” Bass said she spoke with colleagues from Florida—which has a large Cuban and anti-Castro population in Miami—and they raised concerns about her comments. She said she “would not do that again, for sure,” and professed not to be a socialist or a communist.

But that begs the question: Why did it take her so long to become “educated” about Cuba? Was it only in the last four years that she learned about the repressive nature of the Castro regime? Did she think communism was of a different brand when practiced in Havana than in Moscow or Beijing, where people are jailed or executed for speaking ill of, or resisting, the government?

On other issues, Bass seems consistently in line with the party’s Bernie Sanders wing. She was the lead author of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020, a partisan bill that passed the House and went nowhere in the Senate. Among other things, the bill would have prohibited police officers from—quote—”intentionally pointing…a firearm at an individual.” 

What about the intentional pointing of a firearm by a criminal at a police officer? The bill has nothing to say about that. Criminals would love it.

Any real journalist should ask Bass about these subjects and more—before she’s anywhere near “one heartbeat away” from the presidency. 

I’m Cal Thomas.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) In this July 28, 2020 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at the William “Hicks” Anderson Community Center in Wilmington, Del. 

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.