President Obama is “very glad” that Vice President Joseph R. Biden isn’t running for president and instead will devote his full energy to the president’s agenda, the White House said Thursday.
White House deputy press secretary Eric Shultz said Mr. Obama “believes that the vice president will go down as one of the finest vice presidents this country has ever seen.”
“And he is very glad to have him by his side for the next 15 months,” he said. “There’s a lot of work left to do, all of which will be made easier with Joe Biden as his partner.”
Mr. Biden announced Wednesday that he won’t seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, ending months of speculation. He said the process of mourning his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in May, had delayed a decision too deeply into the political calendar.
Mr. Schultz said the president “has been there for his friend, primarily serving as a sounding board, and that’s not just as he copes with unspeakable loss, but also as he makes weighty decisions about his political future.”
“He clearly has a lot of gas left in the tank,” he said of Mr. Biden. “And he’s going to be here making the most out of the next 15 months. And I think I speak for all of us here at the White House when I say that his energy and optimism inspire all of us.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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