Vice President Joe Biden could “live with” supporting Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, but won’t pick a favorite in the 2016 race, the vice president said in a joint interview with the Washington Post and Politico released this morning.
“I could live with either one of them,” Biden said. “I could support either one of them. I just have a different political sense of how we should be talking about the issues that face us, to enhance the possibility that we [the Democrats] keep the White House.”
Politico noted Biden extended his support "without much enthusiasm."
Biden, who in his interview with MSNBC Thursday said he doesn’t have second thoughts about his decision not to run for president this year, offered a critique of the Clinton and Sanders campaigns, saying “it’s a big mistake” they aren’t touting the success of the economic recovery enough.
He added he is in contact with both Clinton and Sanders but won’t pick a favorite in the race. But Biden did extend particular praise to Sanders for his message on income inequality and the influence of money in politics.
“What Bernie’s talking about now is mainstream,” he said. “The concentration of wealth is a disaster, and it’s unfair.”
Biden said Clinton and Sanders are “basically on the same page, with different emphasis” on most issues.
“What I don’t think they spend enough time doing is pushing back on the story line that what we did to get to this point was a failure or a mistake,” he said.