Vice President Joe Biden is not running for president. But he also doesn't seem quite ready to surrender the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton without throwing a few punches first. Here's a look at some of the sneaky jabs he made at the Democratic frontrunner during his speech Wednesday afternoon:
1. "But while I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent."
A challenge if there ever was one! Biden appears to be hinting that he'll throw his weight behind the policies and issues he believes in — an apparent warning to the actual candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, with whom he disagrees on several key policy issues.
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2. "This party, our nation, will be making a tragic mistake if we walk away or attempt to undo the Obama legacy [...] Democrats should not only defend this record and protect this record. They should run on the record."
Biden's speech was big on promoting "the Obama legacy," a clear warning to other Democrats who dare to stray. Recently, Clinton has championed her political individuality and broken with President Obama on a number of issues, coming out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (which she helped engineer as secretary of state), ObamaCare's "Cadillac tax" on premium health insurance, and the Keystone XL Pipeline.
3. "I don't believe, like some do, that it's naive to talk to Republicans. I don't think we should look at Republicans as our enemies. They are our opposition. They're not our enemies. And for the sake of the country, we have to work together."
Remember when Clinton said during the first Democratic presidential debate that Republicans are "enemies" she's been proud to have made? Well, the vice president begs to differ. "The other team is not the enemy," Biden recently said during a dinner in Washington. "If you treat it as the enemy there is no was we can ever ever solve the problems we have to."
