Kamala Harris, the U.S. vice president, or whoever the Democrats nominate as their presidential candidate might have to weigh their vice presidential pick’s religious identity, John King, the chief CNN national correspondent said on Sunday, after U.S. President Joe Biden announced he wouldn’t seek re-election.
“He’s a first-term governor, he’s Jewish, there could be some risks in putting him on the ticket,” King said, of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, on Anderson Cooper’s program on the network. “But certainly some of our voters here in Pennsylvania said, ‘Hey, we like Gov. Shapiro. Give him a look.’”
“It says a lot about the state of American politics, and perhaps especially in progressive circles, that one of the ‘cons’ of Kamala Harris selecting Gov. Josh Shapiro as her vice president, is that he is Jewish and the pushback this might receive,” wrote Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights attorney and CEO of the International Legal Forum.
King, who was married to CNN colleague Dana Bash, reportedly said in 2008 that he planned to convert to Judaism. Shapiro is reportedly an observant Conservative Jew who keeps kosher and went to a Jewish day school.
JNS sought comment from CNN.