Tragedy Led Vice President Joe Biden To Scrap His Presidential Campaign
Vice President Joe Biden says he “would have been the best president” if he had run a successful presidential campaign in the 2016 election in an interview with ABC News. However, a personal tragedy in his family made Biden decide to focus on issues close to his heart.
Biden flirted with the idea of running for president earlier this year due to a request by his son. In an interview with Good Morning America, Biden reveals that the death of his son, Beau Biden, changed his plans.
“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.”
Beau Biden was an attorney and politician who died in May, 2015, at the age of 46 after a long-fought battle with brain cancer.
This isn’t the first time Biden has publicly expressed the distress his suffers from the loss of his son. In a moving interview earlier this year with Stephen Colbert Biden opened up about his loss.
“I don’t think any man or woman should run for president unless, number one, they know exactly why they would want to be president, and two, they can look at folks out there and say I promise you have my whole heart, my whole soul, my energy, and my passion,” Biden said. “And, and, I’d be lying if I said that I knew I was there. I’m being completely honest. Nobody has a right in my view to seek that office unless they are willing to give it 110 percent of who they are.”
Several polls last year suggested Biden would have been the Democrats best hope for the presidential race. When asked about Donald Trump’s campaign the popular vice president admits that Trump was “underestimated from the beginning,” however, he is confident that Hillary Clinton would get the nomination and beat Trump.
Biden suspects that the “vitriol” coming from the Republicans would hurt Trump when he goes head-to-head with Hillary in the primary. While neither Obama nor Biden have officially endorsed Hillary, they have both stated that they believe Hillary will win. While Bernie Sanders is coming off a win in the West Virginia Tuesday night and is looking to have a good month, the math favors Hillary, who leads in both votes and superdelegates.
During his State of the Union address in January of this year, President Barack Obama announced the National Cancer Moonshot initiative and that it would be led by Biden, who is determined to prevent other families from losing loved ones to cancer.
Joe Biden has previously expressed that he would like to see a women be president and America is ready for one when asked whether Hillary is qualified to be president. Biden unsuccessfully campaigned for the Democratic nomination in 1988, and in 2008, dropping out early both times.
As vice president, Biden oversaw the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and helped successfully negotiate many legislations while dealing with a Republican-majority congress. Several reports suggest that Biden and Obama’s friendship transcends presidential duty. Biden revealed in a CNN interview that Obama offered him financial help when the vice president considered selling his house amid his son’s cancer battle.
Obama made him promise not to sell his house and Biden speculated that Obama may be “mad” at him for telling the story that symbolizes their friendship.
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[Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]
