Joe Biden may be biding his time, but don’t hold your breath for a 2020 presidential run.
Barely a day after hinting that he’d be interested in moving back into the White House, the vice president shot down speculation with a Tuesday night visit to “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
After an opening sketch in which the TV host and Biden sat down for a family meeting — Biden suggested he’d be taking up speedboat racing after he leaves office — Biden said he was disappointed in the election results last month.
"It was disappointing to state the obvious, but there were signs toward the end that this was going to be closer than we thought. Hillary (Clinton) did get 2.5 million more votes, but he won fair and square," Biden told Colbert. "The press has only covered these outrageous assertions that have been made and there was no discussion of the things that elections are supposed to be about: education or jobs or foreign policy."
Colbert followed up with a question about if and when the vice president most regretted not running for President.
“Because for me, it was Nov. 9, about three weeks ago,” the talk show host joked.
Biden said he made the right choice for his family to stay out of the race.
“Do I think I was best prepared at that moment to lead the country? I did, because I thought the issues that were of greatest concern were in my wheelhouse, things I’ve dealt with my whole career,” Biden said.
“So in that sense, I’m disappointed I’m not going to be in a position to make those decisions. But I don’t regret the actual decision. The decision was the right decision for me to have made.
“And by the way, I learned, you want to become the most popular guy in America? Announce you’re not running.”
That joke, of course, led back to Biden’s sly maybe-announcement on Monday.
“I did that for one reason, so I could announce now I’m not running and be popular again,” he said.
“I don’t plan on running again, but to say you know what’s going to happen in four years I just think is not rational.”
Even pleas from Colbert, who has frequently pushed the VP to run, weren’t enough.
“I can’t see the circumstance in which I’d run, but what I’ve learned a long, long time ago, Stephen, is to never say never. You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Biden said.
“Donald Trump’s going to be 74. I’ll be 77, in better shape.”
Despite no plans to join the campaign trail in 2020, Biden did say he plans to be involved in politics.
"I think this still really matters, those things I've always cared about: violence against women to whether we have a rational arms control policy."
In terms of Trump's actual presidency, the vice president said some of the new cabinet appointees "give me great pause, but there's other people he's appointed that are very solid."
"We have to be vigilant," Biden said. "When, in fact, it looks like the administration this moving in the direction that is dangerous, I'm counting on Trump to tamp down the bitterness."
He also called for people to give the President-elect "an actual even shot," but promised a change of conversation before the 2018 midterms if Trump doesn't pivot.
"Unless he changes some of his views," Biden said, "reports of the demise of the Democratic Party are premature."
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
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