Joe Biden Regrets Not Being POTUS: 'I Think I Could Have Won'

Joe Biden opens up about his 2016 POTUS chances, revealing he felt he was the "best qualified" person for the job at the time.

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Image via Marc Nozell

Biden

Now that we know definitively which Obama-Biden meme was Joe's favorite, we have to ask: Does the former VP regret not sliding right into the position of POTUS? Joe Biden candidly addressed that inquiry head-on during an appearance at Colgate University on Friday, the Washington Postreported.

"The answer is that I had planned on running for president," Biden told Colgate University president Brian W. Casey when asked about the 2016 presidential campaign. "Although it would have been a very difficult primary, I think I could have won. I don't know, maybe not, but I thought I could have won. I had a lot of data and I was fairly confident that if I were the Democratic party's nominee, I had a better-than-ever chance of being president."

The illness and death of his son Beau, however, ultimately inspired Biden to remove himself from the race. "I lost part of my soul," Biden explained. Inadvertently, Biden's statements to the press surrounding the election started to look like a game. "But I couldn't tell them about my boy," Biden said. "He didn't want anybody feeling sorry for him, and he wanted me to run."

Circling back to the topic of regret, Biden delved further into his 2016 thought process. "I don't not regret not running in the sense that it was the right decision for my boy, for me, for my family at the time," he said. "But do I regret not being president? Yes. And I know that sounds, I know what it sounds like. But no man or woman announces for president of the United States unless they honestly believe from their experience they're the best qualified person to do that." At the time, Biden added, he thought he was the "best qualified" person for the job.

Biden—certainly no stranger to calling Trump out on his bullshit—kinda sorta suggested in December that he might run again in 2020. "Yeah, I am," Biden said, according toCNBC. "For president. And also, you know so, what the hell man, anyway." The statement, Biden clarified, was not a full-on commitment. "I learned a long time ago, fate has a strange way of intervening," he added.

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