Vice President Joe Biden is not running for president.
Standing in the Rose Garden at the White House on Wednesday, flanked by his wife Jill Biden and President Obama, the vice president cited lingering grief over the his son Beau, who died of brain cancer this past May. As he moved through the grieving process, he said, the window had closed on “mounting a realistic campaign for president.”
“There is no timetable for this process,” he said. “The process does not care about filing deadlines.”
But Biden also offered his advice to the other candidates for president: Run on President Obama’s legacy of progressive politics.
“Our nation will be making a tragic mistake if we walk away or attempt to undo the Obama legacy,” he said. “The American people have worked too hard, and we have have come too far for that.”
“Democrats should not only defend and protect this record, but they should run on the record,” Biden continued.
Biden cited issues like limiting tax breaks for high-income households, enacting paid family leave, and tackling institutionalized racism as issues the Democratic presidential candidates should address.
For his remaining 15 months in the White House, Biden said he would use his position as vice president to push “as hard as I can” to obtain national funding for cancer research.
“It’s personal,” he said.
Biden’s full remarks at the Rose Garden can be found here.