Jude Sheerin/ BBC News, Washington
As Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris vets potential running mates, spare a thought for the contenders as they undergo a process that one past participant likened to “a colonoscopy performed with a telescope”.
Have you ever paid for sex?
Have you ever paid for an abortion?
Have you ever had a homosexual encounter?
This is just some of the material in questionnaires fired off during the exhaustive vetting process for previous US vice-presidential nominees.
Potential partners to join Ms Harris on the Democratic ticket for November’s election will have to answer up to 200 questions before they can even begin to be seriously considered.
The vetters – campaign officials and lawyers who volunteer their billable hours for the networking and prestige – often have about a month to dig up every grain of dirt they can find.
The Harris campaign has a matter of days to pick a running mate, with a paperwork deadline looming. The vice-president, who went through the process herself only four years ago, has been assessing around a dozen contenders, with Governor Josh Shapiro and Senator Mark Kelly among those being touted.
Pete Buttigieg, who is also among the rumoured potential picks, was asked this week if the contenders are aware they are being vetted. “Yeah, you know,” he said with a smile.
What makes the whole undertaking especially challenging is that, unlike with cabinet picks, the FBI does not perform background checks on vice-presidents.
The vetters will pore over a contender’s tax returns and medical history. They may log on to his or her private social media accounts. They will scour the social media posts of his or her children. The grandchildren’s, too.
The least suggestion of marital infidelity, or any other skeleton in the closet, will be picked apart.
They will check every record of every word the potential candidate has ever uttered or written.
