That Joe Biden 2020 rumour isn't going away anytime soon, and it's only because Biden himself continues to tease us about it.
During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Biden was asked by Colbert about his comments on Monday. You know, when the VP basically teased reporters by telling them he would run in 2020 and made the internet explode.
“You and I talked about this in a different context before: I’m a great respecter of fate,” Biden 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.”
“That is the sound of a door creaking open,” Colbert answered, (echoing exactly what all of us are thinking).
“I can’t see the circumstance in which I’d run, but what I learned a long, long time ago, Stephen, is to never say never," the vice-president replied, adding, "You don’t know what’s going to happen. Hell, Donald Trump’s going to be 74, I’ll be 77 — and in better shape. What the heck?”
Yup, that's definitely a door creaking open!
This article originally appeared on December 5, 2016.
Joe Biden is wrapping up a wildly successful eight-year run as America's meme commander in chief. And he has not gone quietly into that good night, inspiring countless prank memes and many iconic images of him with President Obama. Biden, perhaps the most of any modern VP, has borne out the soft assumption that the President and Vice President are best friends. So the ever-louder howls that Biden ought to run for the Presidency haven't exactly come out of nowhere. The first rumblings came way back in 2013, when GQ ran this excellent piece about his possible future in politics. "I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America," he told GQ. "But it doesn't mean I won't run." Now, it seems more likely than ever that he is pondering a bid of his own after declining to run in 2016. "Yeah I am. I am going to run in 2020 so uh..." he told NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. "For what?" she asked. "For President" Biden said. "And also, what the hell man, anyway." Read the full exchange here, but that's the most Joe Biden way of announcing a run ever. And huge news for America's meme purveyors and internet lurkers. Biden has only become a nationally respected figure in the past decade. In the past, he's been hamstrung by his gaffes, which have included saying "This is a big fucking deal" while introducing Obama's Affordable Care Act announcement. But what used to qualify as a major gaffe is now hardly a fly on the windshield of a national political candidate. We have Donald Trump to thank for that. Biden's plain speech figures to play well for a political party that felt deeply the lack of a populist connection after last month's shock election result. He isn't quite as profane as, say, Lyndon B. Johnson, but Biden is unafraid of speaking exactly his mind. Not only that, but his relatively blue collar image seems to have (somehow, who knows) survived eight years at the right elbow of power. So Biden seems like the actual perfect candidate to run for President at the head of the 2020 Democratic ticket. Shit, he'd probably win an election against Trump were it held today. Plus, we would get more of his wife's amazing style in the White House. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.
Joe Biden is wrapping up a wildly successful eight-year run as America's meme commander in chief. And he has not gone quietly into that good night, inspiring countless prank memes and many iconic images of him with President Obama. Biden, perhaps the most of any modern VP, has borne out the soft assumption that the President and Vice President are best friends. So the ever-louder howls that Biden ought to run for the Presidency haven't exactly come out of nowhere. The first rumblings came way back in 2013, when GQ ran this excellent piece about his possible future in politics. "I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America," he told GQ. "But it doesn't mean I won't run." Now, it seems more likely than ever that he is pondering a bid of his own after declining to run in 2016. "Yeah I am. I am going to run in 2020 so uh..." he told NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. "For what?" she asked. "For President" Biden said. "And also, what the hell man, anyway." Read the full exchange here, but that's the most Joe Biden way of announcing a run ever. And huge news for America's meme purveyors and internet lurkers. Biden has only become a nationally respected figure in the past decade. In the past, he's been hamstrung by his gaffes, which have included saying "This is a big fucking deal" while introducing Obama's Affordable Care Act announcement. But what used to qualify as a major gaffe is now hardly a fly on the windshield of a national political candidate. We have Donald Trump to thank for that. Biden's plain speech figures to play well for a political party that felt deeply the lack of a populist connection after last month's shock election result. He isn't quite as profane as, say, Lyndon B. Johnson, but Biden is unafraid of speaking exactly his mind. Not only that, but his relatively blue collar image seems to have (somehow, who knows) survived eight years at the right elbow of power. So Biden seems like the actual perfect candidate to run for President at the head of the 2020 Democratic ticket. Shit, he'd probably win an election against Trump were it held today. Plus, we would get more of his wife's amazing style in the White House. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.