--- title: Hillary Clinton Narrows Down VP Picks on 'Ellen' description: Clinton chose several actors over her opponent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. canonical: https://time.com/4347438/hillary-clinton-vp-ellen-bernie-sanders-scandal/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-25T13:45:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:08.439Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Would Rather Have George Clooney as VP Instead of Bernie Sanders og:description: She jokingly revealed her vice president picks on 'Ellen' og:url: https://time.com/4347438/hillary-clinton-vp-ellen-bernie-sanders-scandal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta400221ebcf9622b/698894b0f887dc450ce95ffe/asian-american-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3559 og:image:height: 2002 og:image:alt: Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Campaigns In Louisville, Kentucky og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Would Rather Have George Clooney as VP Instead of Bernie Sanders twitter:description: She jokingly revealed her vice president picks on 'Ellen' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta400221ebcf9622b/698894b0f887dc450ce95ffe/asian-american-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Would Rather Have George Clooney as VP Instead of Bernie Sanders > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White May 25, 2016 1:45 PM UTC  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves to the crowd during a campaign stop at the Union of Carpenters and Millwrights Training Center on May 15 in Louisville, Kentucky. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves to the crowd during a campaign stop at the Union of Carpenters and Millwrights Training Center on May 15 in Louisville, Kentucky. John Sommers II/Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White May 25, 2016 1:45 PM UTC Hillary Clinton would [pick an actor](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/24/politics/hillary-clinton-ellen-vp/index.html) over Bernie Sanders as her vice president. During an appearance on NBC’s _The Ellen Show,_ the [Democratic presidential front runner](http://time.com/4345841/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-fox-news-debate/) played a “Who Would Your Rather” game with host Ellen DeGeneres, focusing on potential vice presidents. Clinton was shown two pictures of politicians, actors or musicians and asked to pick one as her choice for her running mate. When asked to choose between Sanders and Tony Goldwyn, an actor in ABC’s _Scandal_ and [a vocal supporter of Clinton’s](http://time.com/4290002/scandal-shondaland-hillary-clinton/), she went with Goldwyn, saying, “Gotta go with Tony!” Goldwyn would ultimately lose out to another actor—George Clooney. “Ohhh,” Clinton said told DeGeneres. “Well, Tony could be the first term and George could be the second.” Clinton ultimately settled on [DeGeneres as her pick for vice president](http://time.com/4029808/hillary-clinton-whip-nae-nae-ellen/). “You probably don’t want to accept the offer because, you know, you do have to move to Washington and it is expected you live in the vice president’s house. But you could bring the show,” she said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4347438/hillary-clinton-vp-ellen-bernie-sanders-scandal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4347438/hillary-clinton-vp-ellen-bernie-sanders-scandal/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Would Rather Have George Clooney as VP Instead of Bernie Sanders","datePublished":"2016-05-25T13:45:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:08.439Z","description":"She jokingly revealed her vice president picks on Ellen","url":"https://time.com/4347438/hillary-clinton-vp-ellen-bernie-sanders-scandal/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","democrats","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta400221ebcf9622b/698894b0f887dc450ce95ffe/asian-american-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta400221ebcf9622b/698894b0f887dc450ce95ffe/asian-american-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Campaigns In Louisville, Kentucky","caption":"Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Campaigns In Louisville, Kentucky","creditText":"John Sommers II/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4347438/hillary-clinton-vp-ellen-bernie-sanders-scandal/","name":"Hillary Clinton Would Rather Have George Clooney as VP Instead of Bernie Sanders"}}]}] ```