Labor Secretary Tom Perez isn’t confirming rumors he’s on Hillary Clinton’s shortlist for vice president — but he isn’t ruling it out, either.
The Obama administration official dodged a handful of direct questions from CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day” about whether he is one of the top choices to be Clinton’s running mate if she secures the Democratic nomination.
“I’ll tell you what I consider every day, and that’s I’ve got 309 days left until the weekend,” Perez said, referring to the number of days left in President Barack Obama’s term.
Pressed again and again, Perez continued to deflect, saying it’s “an unmitigated privilege to help people get back on their feet every day,” and, “I have one focus right now and that is my day job, and I love my day job.”
He also denied he was counting down the days to his next act — possibly with Clinton.
“Muhammad Ali said you don’t count the days, you make the days count,” he said.
Perez spent much of the conversation arguing the U.S. economy is on the rebound thanks to the efforts of the Obama administration — and gave a preview of his possible campaign mode in slamming Republicans.
“Donald Trump is the exaggerator in chief,” Perez said of the GOP front-runner’s dire description of the current economic and trade situation.
He said Republican alternatives would only make the situation worse — making a reference to a well-known “Winnie the Pooh” character.
“The remedies that I hear from the Eeyore caucus on the right, those are the same remedies that are going to get us right back into the trouble we got into in the Bush administration,” Perez said.