As Joe Biden kicks off his book tour, he told Oprah Winfrey that he's keeping his options open and is keeping the possibility of a 2020 presidential bid on the table. There have been whispers for months that Biden may run, and he's largely side-stepped the question.
But perhaps the most noteworthy moments of his interview came when Biden harshly criticized Hillary Clinton's campaign. Although he said she would have been a "great president," Biden claimed he knew Clinton would lose: "I did 83 events. A month out, I came back and said, 'We're going to lose this election,'" he told Winfrey.
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"I'll bet you can't find 10 friends who could tell you what Hillary's position was on child care," Biden continued. "Not generically, specifically. How we're going to have free college education, how it's going to be paid for. All the things that matter to those people."
He also criticized Clinton's strong focus on "identity politics" as another reason for her loss. This isn't the first time Biden has thrown shade at Clinton. "I never thought she was a great candidate. I thought I was a great candidate," he said in May. And last month, he told Vanity Fair that she ran her campaign without much "joy."
"I think she was sort of a prisoner of history; first woman who had a better-than-even chance of getting the nomination. First woman, relative to the Republican field, who had a better-than-even chance of being president," Biden added.
Although Clinton's campaign was far from perfect, it's hard to imagine that this type of rhetoric will help Biden if he does choose to run in 2020. Clinton defeated him handily in the 2008 primary and, although not all 65.8 million people who cast their ballots for Clinton in November did so enthusiastically, his comments are potentially alienating to many people who are #StillWithHer (as evidenced by her strong book sales and sold-out events all over the country).
In short, there are still many Clinton loyalists who will likely hold Biden's comments against him when it's time to cast votes in the primary — so he may want to stop slamming her campaign if he's entertaining the possibility of another run.
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