Cuban says he turned down Harris team offer to be vetted as VP
Investor Mark Cuban said Thursday that Vice President Harris's team offered to vet him as her running mate for the 2024 presidential election.
He ultimately turned the job down, citing a novice political background and an inability to be second in command.
“I’m not very good as the number two person. And so, if the last thing we need is me telling Kamala, you know, the president, that, no, that’s a dumb idea. Right. And I’m not real good at the shaking hands and kissing babies,” he told Tim Miller from The Bulwark.
Miller said he’d heard about the offer through “green room gossip” at MSNBC and wanted to know how the electoral outcome might have been swayed if Cuban were the Democratic nominee for vice president instead of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D).
However, the "Shark Tank" investor said it wouldn’t have changed much.
“My personality is completely different than Tim’s. My experiences, my backgrounds are completely different. I think I’ve cut through the s---more directly. I’m not a politician. And so it would have been different, but it would have been awful,” Cuban said.
“She would have fired me within six days.”
Cuban served as a surrogate for Harris during the 2024 campaign and ruffled feathers with his sharp rebuke for President Trump.
The billionaire said he rarely followed notes issued by the campaign team and publicly broke with Harris on some of her proposed policies on immigration and taxes.
Despite small clashes, Cuban said he thought Harris would prevail.
“You know, I really thought she was going to win,” he told Miller.
Updated at 10:40 a.m. EDT