Last night, former Vice President Joe Biden morphed from America’s beloved “Uncle Joe” to a crankier, more distant relative, taking Hillary Clinton to the verbal woodshed for her failed presidential campaign.
“I never thought she was the correct candidate,” he said at a hedge-fund event in Las Vegas, reported Fusion. “I thought I was the correct candidate.”
“No man or woman should announce for the presidency unless they genuinely believe that for that moment in the nation’s history they are most qualified person to deal with the issues facing the country,” TheStreet quoted him as saying.
In the past, Biden has intimated that Clinton was not. In March, he said he was the “best qualified.”
“I had planned on running for president, and although it would have been a very difficult primary, I think I could have won. I don’t know, maybe not. But I thought I could have won,” he said, according to The Hill.
Additionally, in a Dec. 22 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Biden said Clinton was reticent to run and ultimately didn’t know why she did. “I don’t think she ever really figured it out,” Biden said. “She thought she had no choice but to run. That, as the first woman who had an opportunity to win the presidency, I think it was a real burden on her,” he said.
As late as August 2015, there were rumors that Biden would throw his hat in the ring for the 2016 Democratic nomination. He put an end to that speculation in October 2015, saying he needed to tend to his family; his son Beau had died of brain cancer in May.
But at last night’s event, Biden said he wouldn’t rule out a presidential run in 2020, although he likely wouldn’t run. Maybe.
“Could I? Yes. Would I? Probably no,” he said.
“My family has to get back together,” he continued. “If I get those things done, and I’m healthy and viable, and it looks like I’m the best man to do it, I may very well do it, but my family comes first.”
