Former Vice President Joe Biden said he will not challenge President Trump in 2020.
“Guys, I’m not running,” Biden said on Sunday at the state Democratic Party’s annual dinner in New Hampshire, according to the Boston Globe. When Bided told the crowd that he would not seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, the crowd booed.
“Run, Joe Run,” was yelled from the crowd as Biden continued his speech celebrating the nation’s first all-female, all-Democratic congressional delegation. Biden told the crowd that he would raise money and campaign to help get Democrats elected at every level of government.
Back in March, Biden voiced regret that he chose not to run for president in 2016.
“I had planned on running for president and although it would have been a very difficult primary, I think I could have won,” Biden said at at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. “I don’t know, maybe not. But I thought I could have won.”
Biden was going to run but changed his mind after his son Beau died in May 2015 at age 46 after a long battle with brain cancer.
“But do I regret not being president? Yes. I was the best qualified,” he said at the March event.
Last year, he told “Good Morning America,” “No one should ever seek the presidency unless they’re able to devote their whole heart and soul and passion into just doing that. And, Beau was my soul. I just wasn’t ready to be able to do that. But, so, my one regret is my Beau’s not here. I don’t have any other regrets.”
Earlier this year, Biden jokingly mentioned that he was going to run for president in 2020. Shortly thereafter, he set the record straight, telling Stephen Colbert, “I don’t plan on running again, but to say you know what’s going to happen in four years is just not rational,” adding the caveat that he isn’t shutting the door on the possibility for good.