Biden 'had to choose' Harris for VP but 'wanted it to be' Gretchen Whitmer: report

Former President Joe Biden reportedly wanted Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to be his vice president but "had to choose" former Vice President Kamala Harris.

An Atlantic article profiled the Democratic governor and potential 2028 presidential candidate on Sunday and reported how Whitmer was being considered by Biden to be his running mate in 2020, particularly after her pushback against President Donald Trump.

Though Whitmer was ultimately not chosen, the Atlantic claimed that Biden "wanted it to be Whitmer" and was pushed into picking Harris after the Black Lives Matter protests.

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"All of this attention seemed like it might add up to something, and by summer 2020, Whitmer was being vetted for vice president," the report read. "She wasn’t sure about it at first, people familiar with her thinking at the time told me; she struggled to imagine herself as a creature of Washington, D.C. She got along well with Biden, though, and by the time he asked her to fly to Delaware for an in-person chat, she was ready to say yes. Biden didn’t ask."

The report said a former senior staffer for Whitmer said, "The moment called for a Black running mate," and how Biden really wanted the Michigan governor instead. According to the Atlantic, a former adviser to both Biden and Harris said that claim carried "some weight."

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The Atlantic reported that Whitmer still "campaigned happily" for the pair and "never wavered in her support" for Biden until he officially dropped out of the 2024 presidential election.

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden and Whitmer's offices for comment.

Whitmer was reported to have been the first candidate to meet in-person with Biden in August 2020 as he was vetting potential running mates.

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In December 2020, Whitmer confirmed that she went through the vetting process to become Biden's running mate and would have accepted the role if it had been offered to her.

"If Joe Biden had called and said 'I need you to be my partner and be my running mate' I would have said yes," Whitmer told Fox 2. "This election was that important."