White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday that President Obama is not torn over the possibility that Vice President Joe Biden may be mounting a Democratic presidential primary challenge to Hillary Clinton, Obama’s former secretary of state, and said Obama will simply let the Democratic voters decide on the best candidate under that scenario.
Obama was in the middle of lunch with Biden when reporters repeatedly pressed Earnest on the president’s reaction to increasing speculation that Biden will jump into the Democratic primary race.
“I think that everybody is pretty interested to find out what decision the vice president is planning to make,” Earnest acknowledged.
Earnest repeated an early statement that the president has said that his choice of Biden as his running mate seven years ago is the smartest decision he’s ever made in politics.
“That should give you an indication of the president’s view of [Biden’s] aptitude” for the job of president, Earnest said.
“The vice president is somebody who has already run for president twice … you can make the case that there is probably no one in American politics today who has a better understanding of what it takes” to mount a presidential run, he added.
Earnest’s comments came after reports that Biden has hired a communications staffer with presidential experience, and after his weekend meeting with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a meeting many took as a sign that Biden is thinking about a run.
But Earnest also noted that Obama has regularly expressed the appreciation, respect and admiration he has for Hillary Clinton and the job she did as his secretary of state. But while offering support to both, Obama is not “torn” over his loyalties between Biden and Clinton, Earnest insisted.
“The president does plan to vote in the Illinois primary,” he noted. “Ultimately, it will be Democratic voters who are responsible for choosing [their nominee].”
Earnest said he would not rule out an Obama endorsement in the Democratic primary and is confident he will back whoever ends up as the Democratic nominee.
Pressed on whether Democrats should be hitting the panic button over Clinton’s email troubles, Earnest offered words of caution, reminding reporters that there was “not a ton of confidence in the likelihood” that then-Sen. Obama would be elected president in August of 2007.
“I would warn people against people drawing conclusions at such an early stage,” he said.
