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Biden rules out being Clinton’s vice president

US presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (L) and Vice President Joe Biden (file photo)

US Vice President Joe Biden has ruled out being presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 race for the White House.

In an interview with MSNBC on Monday, Biden reiterated his support for the former first lady but asserted that being her vice president was not “my preferred route.”

“I have great respect for Hillary,” Biden said. “I'm going to work like the devil for her, but I'm not looking to be vice president again, and no one has talked to me.”

Before the announcement, Biden was one of the main favorites for the position. Both Clinton and her possible Republican rival Donald Trump are expected to reveal their running mates in the coming days.

Biden was expected to hit the campaign trail with Clinton in Pennsylvania last week, but the event was postponed after the deadly shooting of five police officers in Dallas, Texas, last Thursday, amid nationwide anti-police brutality protests in the country.

‘Institutional racism’

Thousands of demonstrators have flooded the streets of major cities across the country to decry the recent deaths of two African-American men - Alton Sterling and Philando Castile - at the hands of US police officers.

Sterling was fatally shot by police in the southeastern city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday, and Castile was killed by another white police officer in St. Paul, Minnesota, the next day.

Following the hike in anti-police sentiments, Biden acknowledged in an interview with ABC News that “institutional racism” still exists in the country and plagues the police.

"What does matter is the frustration in African-American community of the institutional racism that's been around forever and ever in the United States and still exists in application of some of the laws has to be addressed," he said. "And it's real. And some police organizations that I met with today, the president met with, acknowledged that."

US President Barack Obama had also expressed similar views after the Dallas attack, taking a jab at police by saying, “the data shows that black folks are more vulnerable to these kinds of incidents.”


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