Joe Biden: 'I've decided I'm not going to decide not to run'

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 25 October 2017

Former Vice President Joe Biden has run for president twice, and likely would have for a third time in 2016 if not for the death of his son, Beau, 46, in May 2015. Biden told Vanity Fair that if it hadn't been for his grief following Beau's passing, there is "no question" he would have run to be Barack Obama's successor. "I had planned on running," confirmed Biden, "and I wasn't running against Hillary or Bernie or anybody else. Honest to God, I thought that I was the best suited for the moment to be president."

Now Biden is looking ahead to 2020. With the publication of Promise Me, Dad next month — a memoir about Beau's illness — Biden clarified to Vanity Fair that "I've got too much more to do to write an autobiography. For real. I don't consider my attempt to contribute to the public square finished.”

Asked for his current state of mind about 2020, Biden ruled nothing out. "I haven't decided to run," he said, "but I've decided I'm not going to decide not to run. We'll see what happens." He is behaving very much like a probable candidate, having formed a political-action committee, American Possibilities, in June, and writing opinion pieces in recent months for The Atlantic and The New York Times about Donald Trump's illiberal conduct and the need to reclaim traditional American values. [Vanity Fair]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.