Sen. Joe Lieberman Has Made His 2016 Pick

At first, former Senator Joe Lieberman couldn’t make up his mind on which candidate he wanted to vote for in 2016, but during an interview Wednesday on the FOX Business Network’s Mornings with Maria, he announced his presidential pick for the first time.

“I’m an Independent Democrat, I never changed parties, and I’m going to vote for Hillary Clinton because I’ve known her forever. She’s strong, she’s smart, she understands national security, and what I was most impressed with during our years in the Senate together is that she reached across party lines to build coalitions and get stuff done,” he said.

When it comes to national security, an issue primed to take center stage this election season, Lieberman explained why Clinton dominates.

“First, she will start with a credibility and familiarity with our allies around the world including our allies in NATO. The second is that it’s pretty clear from her time as Secretary of State that she argued at various times for stronger action than the administration took, particularly in Syria. Based on the spread of ISIS murdering around the world, they’re involved in a global war around the world, and we’re not really involved in fighting back in that war, and the next president’s going to have to do that, along with all of our allies in Europe, the Middle East and beyond,” he said.

Lieberman, who was Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 presidential election, also discussed what Donald Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, and Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine, bring to their respective tickets.

“In everything that they do, the vice presidential candidates have to convince the American people that they are capable of being president if that crisis should occur. Second, the vice presidential candidate basically does what the president wants them to do. It’s a support system,” he said.

And as for his advice for the vice president hopefuls, Lieberman says when it comes to the debate: prepare, prepare, prepare.

“The debates generally will be a big moment. The way things are going now, it’ll be a particularly big moment for Donald Trump and Mike Pence who will have to be coming back from where they are now, where things seem to be moving away from the Republican ticket. I worked pretty hard to get ready for the debate. The debate I had with Dick Cheney I’m very proud of because we disagreed on a lot of things, maybe most things, but it was a very civil debate, and America could use a civil debate between presidential and vice presidential candidates this year.”