Former Vice President Joe Biden says he feels “guilty” about not wanting to challenge President Trump in 2020, particularly as he urges voters to oppose his re-election.
The potential Democratic candidate, whom polls have shown could run tight race against Trump, told the Washington Post in an interview published Tuesday that he remains unsure of his plans in the next election cycle and isn’t all that eager to run.
His comments came in the midst of a discussion about Trump’s actions toward European allies, whom the administration recently targeted with steel and aluminum tariffs. Biden said Americans should reject the president’s protectionist trade policies and avoid delivering him a second term.
“It makes me feel guilty about not wanting to [run for president],” he told the Post. “But it doesn’t make me want to. I’m not looking to live in the White House, I’ve seen it up close.”
He added, “All kidding aside, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
A series of polls released earlier this year found Biden with high levels of approval among Democrats and independent voters. And in a hypothetical match-up survey conducted by the left-leaning Public Policy Polling group in April, Biden beat Trump 56 to 39 percent.
Biden previously said he is waiting to see who enters the Democratic field ahead of 2020 before deciding to launch a bid of his own.
“If, in a year from now, if we’re ready and nobody moved in that I think can do it, then I may very well do it,” Biden told ABC’s “The View” in 2017.
