Biden reportedly says Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is in his 'top three' picks for VP

While reportedly setting up video equipment in Delaware over four days, former Vice President Joe Biden was apparently mulling over possible running mates.

Biden told former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) is one of his "top three" choices should he win the Democratic presidential nomination, Mediaite reported Thursday.

Reid, who was also a longtime senator representing Nevada, is reportedly nudging Biden toward choosing Cortez Masto as his VP, and Biden's campaign apparently feels she would be a strong choice and could help expand Biden's popularity among Latinx voters. Biden publicly committed to choosing a woman as his vice president if nominated over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sparking endless speculation over who that woman might be. CNBC says Biden's "business allies" are hoping for Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) or Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), two former presidential candidates themselves. The Washington Post, meanwhile, said Biden's shortlist probably included Cortez Masto, but also named more well-known Democrats like former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Biden's campaign declined to dispute Mediaite's reporting, simply saying he would vigorously vet candidates.

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New York magazine wrote that Biden is spending his "coronavirus bunker" time "thinking a lot" about a potential VP, and taking lots of calls from supporters and Democratic strategists who are pushing Biden to pick their candidate of choice. None of those calls, however, resulted in much reported information on whether Biden had narrowed his list.

Biden told The View on Tuesday his "short" list was between "12 and 15" names, but if his reported statement to Reid is to be believed, he's done a lot of whittling in the past few days. Read more at Mediaite and New York.