'I appreciate his openness to it': Hillary Clinton expresses interest in Mark Cuban as her running mate
"I think we should look widely and broadly," She told Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's not just people in elective office. It is successful businesspeople. I am very interested in that. And I appreciate his openness to it."
The Democratic frontrunner said she's "absolutely" intending to look "far and wide" to find a potential vice president - and took a shot a presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump while doing so.
"I think that is the best way to find somebody who can really capture what's needed in the country, and businesspeople have, especially successful businesspeople who are really successful as opposed to pretend successful, I think have a lot to offer."
On the same Sunday program, Cuban indicated his willingness to serve as Clinton's vice president if asked.
Todd mentioned that Cuban has previously joked about being willing to serve on Clinton's ticket as long as he could "throw bombs" at Trump. So Todd asked if he'd consider should the Democratic frontrunner make the proposition.
"Absolutely," he said. "But the key would be that she'd have to go more to center."
"I like the fact that [Secretary] Clinton has thought-out proposals," he continued. "That's a good thing because at least we get to see exactly where she stands."
Cuban said that he thinks Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator battling Clinton for the Democratic nomination, has "dragged her a little bit too far to the left" on economic issues.
"If she's willing to listen, if she's willing to, you know, hear other sides of things, then I'm wide open to discussing it," he said.
On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that Republican operatives who remain opposed to presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump gauged Cuban's interest in running as a third-party or independent candidate. He later said that it was an "impossible" proposition.
"Look, it was just an email through one of my associates and it was ... a quick response of no," Cuban told CNN's Erin Burnett earlier this week. "It's impossible for it to work."
"There's not enough time to get on the ballot," he continued. "The hurdles are just too great. It was a ridiculous effort, so I passed."
Cuban, the brash billionaire business mogul and owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, also told Burnett that he was not completely sure whom he'd be voting for in the fall.
But he said that he would lean toward Clinton "because the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know."
"I know what Hillary's positions are," he said. "I can go to Hillary's website and there's spreadsheets, there's depth, there's analysis, there's details. Is going to Donald's website - which I have - he lists issues. He lists top-line things that he'd like to do, but he doesn't say how he's going to get there."
Last year, Cuban told Business Insider on his Cyber Dust social-media app that he was open to being Trump's running mate.
"Would I consider?" Cuban responded. "Yes."
But the "Shark Tank" star and outspoken investor said that he would probably not end up accepting the hypothetical offer.
"Would I do it. Probably not," he continued. "I'm not cut out for politics. At least [the] way they are now. Maybe in the future if Trump truly impacts how the game is played."
He has recently soured on a potential Trump presidency.