In an alternate timeline, billionaire and investor Mark Cuban could have been Kamala Harris‘ vice presidential pick.
However, the Shark Tank star said he turned down an offer from the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign for vetting papers, adding that he wouldn’t be a great collaborator as the second-in-command.
“I’m not very good as the No. 2 person. And so, 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 The Bulwark host Tim Miller.
When theorizing how that may or may not have changed the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, Cuban responded that it “obviously” would have given the Democratic ticket a different vibe, given the contrast he strikes with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
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“My personality is completely different than Tim’s. My experiences, my backgrounds are completely different. I think I’ve cut through the sh– more directly. I’m not a politician. And so it would have been different, but it would have been awful,” Cuban maintained. “She would have fired me within six days.”
When Miller, a former Republican consultant-turned-Never Trumper, said that reality “would have been better than the present situation,” the former Dallas Mavericks owner conceded, “Well, yes, that’s true.”
As Miller noted, Cuban previously appeared at Harris’ rallies and has been vocal against president Donald Trump, his tariff policies and general demeanor, previously endorsing Hillary Clinton in 2016 and calling the current POTUS a “jagoff.” Cuban has also tossed around the idea of running for president as a Republican, but has described his politics as libertarian and independent in nature.