Biden refuses to rule out 2020 for the 3rd time in a week


For the third time since Monday, Vice President Joe Biden refused to rule out the possibility of a presidential run in 2020 in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper that aired Sunday.
"Four years is a lifetime in American politics," Biden said. "And I think nominees are determined by their parties based mostly on what skill set is most needed at that time. And who knows where we're going to be two years from now, when people are really starting to look seriously at what they're going to do." The outgoing veep previously said 2020 might be on the table Monday after a Senate session and Tuesday on Stephen Colbert's Late Show.
The conversation with Tapper also covered the 2016 election — "the most vicious campaign, the craziest campaign, I’ve ever witnessed" — and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general nominee. In 1986, Biden refused to support Sessions' nomination to a federal judgeship on the grounds that Sessions had made racist remarks, but 30 years later, he told Tapper that though he "wouldn't have appointed Jeff," people can learn and change.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Watch Biden's full comments about 2020 below. Bonnie Kristian
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
Trump’s budget bill will increase the deficit. Does it matter?
Today's Big Question Analysts worry a 'tipping point' is coming
-
Film reviews: The Phoenician Scheme, Bring Her Back, and Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
Feature A despised mogul seeks a fresh triumph, orphaned siblings land with a nightmare foster mother, and a Jane fan finds herself in a love triangle
-
Music reviews: Tune-Yards and PinkPantheress
Feature "Better Dreaming" and "Fancy That"
-
Elon Musk slams Trump's 'pork-filled' signature bill
speed read 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong,' Musk posted on X
-
Depleted FEMA struggling as hurricane season begins
speed read FEMA has lost a third of its workforce amid DOGE cuts enforced by President Donald Trump
-
White House tackles fake citations in MAHA report
speed read A federal government public health report spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was rife with false citations
-
Judge blocks push to bar Harvard foreign students
speed read Judge Allison Burroughs sided with Harvard against the Trump administration's attempt to block the admittance of international students
-
Trump's trade war whipsawed by court rulings
Speed Read A series of court rulings over Trump's tariffs renders the future of US trade policy uncertain
-
Elon Musk departs Trump administration
speed read The former DOGE head says he is ending his government work to spend more time on his companies
-
Trump taps ex-personal lawyer for appeals court
speed read The president has nominated Emil Bove, his former criminal defense lawyer, to be a federal judge
-
US trade court nullifies Trump's biggest tariffs
speed read The US Court of International Trade says Trump exceeded his authority in imposing global tariffs