By Abby Osborne
Contributing Writer
Former Vice President Joe Biden says he’s in the final stages of deciding on a potential presidential run in 2020. But he sounded an awful lot like a candidate as he described the process.
Biden was nearing the end of a wide-ranging 90-minute conversation at the University of Delaware with presidential historian Jon Meacham about the Pulitzer Prize winner’s new book, “The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels,” when Meacham dropped the question that everyone in the audience was waiting for: Are you running?
“They — the most important people in my life — want me to run,” Biden said after revealing he had a family meeting that included his grandchildren about his potential campaign.
Biden said that approval doesn’t mean he is ready quite yet to make his decision. First, he wants to make sure that he can overcome “a couple of hurdles,” including determining his comfort level with taking his family through a “very, very, very difficult campaign;” assessing the depth of the public’s support; and deciding whether he can win the race and avoid making it “a fool’s errand.”
He also said that he doesn’t think President Trump “is likely to stop at anything” in the general election.
Biden said he needs to figure out how to incorporate social media into his campaign and making sure he runs an inclusive campaign that “reflects our country.” He also reiterated his pledge not to take money from a Super PAC,” drawing applause from the capacity crowd of about 700 people in the first-ever event held at the newly named Joseph R. Biden Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration (“the Biden School”).
As he neared the end of his five-minute response, one woman in the crowd yelled, “Oh, god, just say yes!”
Biden, along with the rest of the crowd, laughed in response, but he replied by saying, “The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean. That’s as straight-forward as I can be. I have not made the final decision.”
Abby Osborne is a junior at Avon Grove High School.