Shark Tank star Mark Cuban confirmed speculation that Vice President Kamala Harris’s team approached him as a running mate during the 2024 election.
While he acknowledged receiving vetting documents, Cuban made it clear he had no interest in stepping into the role of second-in-command.
“My response was I’m not very good as the No. 2 person,” Cuban told Bulwark podcast host Tim Miller, explaining his reluctance to consider the offer seriously. “And I’m not really good at shaking hands and kissing babies.”
Cuban, who joined Harris on the campaign trail, said he doesn’t have the personality to be vice president and that if Harris had picked him as a running mate, he would have been fired in six days.
“I’m not a politician,” Cuban said. “My personality is completely different. … I think I’ve cut through the [nonsense] more directly. It would have been different, but it would have been awful.”
Cuban expressed last year that he had no interest in a Cabinet position in a Harris administration, except for the Securities and Exchange Commission commissioner post.
“I told her team, put my name in for the SEC. It needs to change,” Cuban said in September.
His interest in the SEC reflects his long-standing concerns about the transparency and effectiveness of financial regulation.
The podcast host suggested that a Cuban vice presidency would have made a “meaningfully different” impression than Harris’s pick of Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN).
Cuban agreed but stood firm that he was never the right person for the job.
“Obviously, it would have been different,” Cuban said, “but it would have been awful.”
Despite rejecting the then-vice president’s vetting process, Cuban clarified he respects Harris and supported her candidacy. However, his endorsement mainly stemmed from his staunch opposition to President Donald Trump.
When asked why he backed Harris in the 2024 race despite the internal challenges facing the Democratic Party, Cuban didn’t hesitate, saying, “Because she wasn’t Donald Trump.”
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Cuban has long been critical of Trump, especially on issues such as trade and immigration. During the 2024 campaign, he blasted Trump’s tariff policies and the feasibility of his border wall proposals.
“This man has so little understanding of tariffs, he thinks that China pays for that,” Cuban said at an event in Wisconsin. “This is the same guy who also thought that Mexico would pay for the wall.”