Political Wire

Biden Accuses GOP of Threatening Democracy

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Vice President Joe Biden “cast the Senate’s refusal to consider Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court as a viral dysfunction that would infect other branches of government and threaten the American democracy,” Politico reports.

“Biden used sweeping language in a bid to walk back his own comments from a June 1992 speech he made on the Senate floor, which Senate Republicans have used to justify their refusal to take any action on any Supreme Court nominee by President Barack Obama during an election year.”

Said Biden: “We’re watching a Constitutional crisis in the making born out of dysfunction in Washington. It’s got to stop.”

Biden Once Urged Delaying Supreme Court Pick

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“As a senator more than two decades ago, Vice President Joe Biden argued that President George Bush should delay filling a Supreme Court vacancy, should one arise, until the presidential election was over, and that it was ‘essential’ that the Senate refuse to confirm a nominee to the court until then,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Biden’s words, though uttered long ago, are a direct contradiction to President Obama’s position in the battle over naming a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia.”

Biden Says Trump Could Win

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Vice President Joe Biden believes Donald Trump could end up clinching the Republican nomination, while adding that he “would be surprised” if Trump got elected, Politico reports.

Said Biden: “I think it is very possible he could be nominated and depending on how this all plays out. I would take him seriously in terms of being able to win because he’s appealing to fear.”

Trump Suggests Biden May Be the Democratic Nominee

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Donald Trump said that if Hillary Clinton is indicted over her email server it won’t be Bernie Sanders who becomes the nominee – it’s more likely to be Vice President Joe Biden, Politico reports.

Said Trump: “If she’s indicted… therefore she wouldn’t be able to run essentially. Maybe Biden, it could be a couple of other people that you and I both know.”

Obama Offered to Help Biden Family

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“As his eldest son faced the prospect of resigning as Delaware’s attorney general amid health concerns, Vice President Joe Biden received an offer that floored him: financial support from his boss, President Obama,” CNN reports.

“Obama, Biden remembered, pushed back vehemently on the thought of Biden and his wife selling their home in Wilmington, Delaware.”

Recalled Biden: “He got up and he said, ‘Don’t sell that house. Promise me you won’t sell the house. He said, “I’ll give you the money. Whatever you need, I’ll give you the money.'”

Biden Says He Couldn’t Win

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When Vice President Joe Biden was asked by 60 Minutes why he didn’t run for president, his answer was very simple.

Said Biden: “Couldn’t win. I’ll be very blunt If I thought we could’ve put together the campaign that our supporters deserve and our contributors deserved I’ll– I would have gone ahead and done it.”

He also said that he wouldn’t run for political office again.

What Does Joe Biden Do Now?

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Holly Bailey: “The vice president, who will turn 73 in November, is facing the potential twilight of the only career he has ever really known, one he has inhabited in a way few other politicians have. He was just 27 when he was first elected to political office — a seat on the New Castle County Council in Delaware. Three years later, he ran for U.S. Senate and won. Just 30 at the time, he was the sixth-youngest senator in U.S. history. All told, he’s spent nearly 46 years in office — more than half of his life — and Biden seems to have enjoyed nearly every minute of it.”

“Perhaps no politician since Lyndon B. Johnson has thrived on and loved public office more than Biden. Like LBJ, a creature of the Senate who also ascended to the White House, Biden has delighted in the nitty-gritty details of lawmaking and the art of making a deal and forging compromise even among political enemies.”

How Clinton Boxed Out Biden

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Politico: “The directive to do nothing publicly to challenge Biden, multiple sources said, came directly from the top — Hillary Clinton herself was described as ‘aggressive’ and ‘demanding’ that donors and outside surrogates refrain from launching attacks against Biden, or even commenting publicly about his support or his chances.”

“The campaign was so sensitive about the appearance of going after Biden that even talking points for surrogates on how to discuss Biden, usually delivered by email, were only delivered by private phone calls… Part of that stance was out of respect, sources close to the campaign said, and part was an effort not to give Biden any reason to feel he should get in the race.”

Biden Lost the Invisible Primary

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Perry Bacon: “Vice President Joe Biden officially decided not to run for president. But in many ways, it wasn’t his choice: the power brokers in the Democratic Party unified around former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, not the sitting vice president, leaving Biden the options of either not running or facing a campaign with long odds of victory.”

Harry Enten: “Few presidential primary candidates have entered the race as late as Biden would have. It’s possible that Biden, as vice president, might have been able to overcome the pitfalls of past late entries. On the other hand, everything we do know suggests Biden would have had a short, hard road. Biden made the right move.”

Biden Will Not Run for President

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Vice President Joe Biden has decided to forgo a 2016 presidential bid, CBS News reports.

“The decision ends months of speculation about whether Biden would step up to challenge Hillary Clinton, the current front runner for the Democratic nomination and his former Obama administration colleague.”

Said Biden: “While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent.”

Politico: “The decision ends a long period of uncertainty for the party: Biden had never truly ruled out running for president, but he was largely sidelined when the conversation started centering on Clinton by late 2014.”

Paul Ryan and Joe Biden

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Rick Klein: “It’s an extraordinarily coincidence of timing that has Ryan and Biden – two former foes who squared off for No. 2 three years ago – publicly contemplating roles as potential party saviors. The vice president is not stepping up just yet, yet sounding very much like a man who can’t walk away. The congressman is claiming he’s poised to do just that, even while stepping back squarely into the arena.”

“Ryan is making an argument that he can rescue the Republican Party, though only via his own path forward – a bold statement meant to call out his rivals. Biden is building an argument where only he can salvage the Democratic Party, his rivals notwithstanding. Both men are citing family in motivations and hesitations. But the most important discussions are clearly going on inside their heads at this moment. Ryan and Biden are separated by a quarter century of age and miles of ideology. Both, though, are concerned about futures that are dimmer than their pasts.”

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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