US Vice President Joe Biden is brushing past signs of a resurgence by Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton with fresh and direct suggestions he could be on the verge of entering the presidential race.
Biden’s political team broke its months-long silence on the subject with a letter circulated by one of Biden’s closest friends and top advisers. In the letter, though Biden is still officially undecided, former US senator Ted Kaufman described a “campaign from the heart” that Biden would wage and said a decision is not far off.
“If he decides to run, we will need each and every one of you — yesterday,” Kaufman said, alluding to the speed at which Biden would have to ramp up a campaign.
To its recipients — including Biden’s former US Senate, White House and campaign staffers — Thursday’s letter smacked of an unambiguous indication Biden was all but green-lighting a presidential campaign. Several individuals familiar with the letter said it was circulated with Biden’s blessing. The individuals were not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.
Biden has been silent on the issue for weeks, while allowing his own self-imposed deadlines to fly by. His indecision has led many Democratic leaders to publicly write off his prospects, particularly as Clinton revels in a strong debate performance and an impressive stretch of fundraising, solidifying her status as the Democratic front-runner.
Clinton and another Democratic presidential hopeful, US Senator Bernie Sanders, this week both announced that they have raised more than US$25 million in their past three-month stretch, a potent reminder that many of the Democratic establishment’s donors and top players have already committed to a declared candidate.
To some Democrats, Biden runs the risk of being perceived as a spoiler at this point, drawing votes away from Clinton without any substantial prospect for electoral success. In public comments, the Republican Party is all but laying out a welcome mat.
Even Biden’s friends and aides remain at a loss to explain exactly what is holding up his decision.
In more than a dozen interviews over the past week, individuals close to Biden described a man still wrestling with whether he and his family would be well served by campaign pressures while they continue grieving the death of Biden’s son in May.
Biden and his team are approaching their just-in-case preparations for a potential campaign with a new level of seriousness.
This week, he has been placing calls to top Democratic strategists in early primary states to solicit candid assessments of his chances, according to individuals familiar with the calls. Biden’s team has also had detailed conversations with campaign data and analytics experts to determine how quickly he could ramp up the digital side of his campaign, the individuals said.
For Biden’s supporters, those signals serve as the reassurance they were seeking that their enthusiasm has not been misplaced.
“The steps that we are seeing toward a potential candidacy are definitely creating some excitement, anticipation and hope in people that this might be happening,” said Mike Cuzzi, a former campaign official for US President Barack Obama in New Hampshire, who is supporting the pro-Biden super political action committee.
Cuzzi added that Biden’s supporters were “eager for him to make a determination.”
Clinton’s supporters feel the same, but for different reasons. After her widely lauded performance in Tuesday’s debate, her campaign chairman told reporters it was time for Biden to make up his mind.
Clinton said in an interview with the Boston Globe that she had discussed the campaign with Biden a few months ago.
“I said: ‘You know, Joe, this is totally up to you and your family. We were friends before, we will be friends after, whatever you decide,’” Clinton told the newspaper.
Republicans have been pining for a Biden campaign, in hopes that a more combative Democratic primary would weaken Clinton.
“Right now there is no question Joe Biden would be the toughest candidate for Republicans to beat in the general election,” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Allison Moore said.
The lack of certainty has also put Obama in a delicate position, caught between loyalties to his vice president and his former US secretary of state.
“I am not going to comment on what Joe’s doing or not doing,” Obama said on Friday, describing Biden as his “very able vice president.”
Most recent polls show a hypothetical Biden candidacy running third, behind both Clinton and Sanders, with support in the high teens. Biden appears to primarily draw voters who would otherwise lean toward supporting Clinton. Surveys have shown a recent uptick in positive opinions of Biden nationally, with 85 percent of Democrats viewing him positively in a Gallup poll this month.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS