Vice-President Joe Biden told reporters on Monday that he’s “not ready” to make a decision on whether he will run for president in 2016.
Just one day after the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton launched her campaign for the Democratic nomination, Biden told reporters that he still hasn’t made up his mind on a run of his own. “I have plenty of time to do that, in my view.”
However, the vice-president didn’t take questions about what potentially could be his third campaign entirely seriously, joking: “I’m announcing today that [Senator Marco] Rubio and I are going to run together,” in reference to the Florida Republican who announced his presidential campaign on Monday.
Biden has long been considered one of the strongest potential challengers to Clinton if he chooses to run. The sitting vice-president consistently polls in the teens in nationwide surveys against the former secretary of state. In one recent poll from Monmouth University, which did not include the Massachusetts senator and liberal favorite Elizabeth Warren, he reached 16%. However, Clinton maintained an overwhelming lead at 60%.
If Biden decides to enter the race, he will have some advantages as sitting vice-president, but he is unlikely to have the White House actively behind him.
The White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, told reporters on Monday that Barack Obama will not get involved in the 2016 Democratic primary. Earnest said “there are other people [besides Hillary Clinton] who are friends of the president who may at some point decide to get into the race”.
The White House spokesman continued: “The president has not offered up any sort of an endorsement at this point. This will be the responsibility of Democratic voters to decide who should be the Democratic nominee for president.”
So far, Clinton is still the only announced candidate for the Democratic nomination.
