Former US vice-prez Biden says he could have won White House race in 2016

Ex-Veep regrets not running for White House

London, March 27: Former US vice-president Joe Biden believes he could have won the Presidency in 2016, had he made it through a tough Democratic primary. “At the end of the day, I just couldn’t do it. So I don’t regret not running. Do I regret not being president? Yes,” he said. “I don’t regret not running in the sense that it was the right decision for my boy, for me, for my family at the time,” Mr Biden added.

The former Delaware senator was speaking to a student audience at Colgate University in central New York state on Friday, reports The Guardian.

Barack Obama’s vicepresident also hopes Donald Trump, who has had a tempestuous first two months in office since beating Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, “grows into the job a little bit”, reported the newspaper.

“I don’t have a lot of hope now,” Mr Biden said. “I hope that he succeeds.” The former Delaware senator with a dazzling smile was speaking to a student audience at Colgate University in central New York state on Friday. A local newspaper, the ObserverDispatch of Utica, reported his remarks.

“On a college campus I will never, never do anything other than answer the question completely unvarnished and straightforward,” said Biden, 74. “The answer is that I had planned on running for president. And although it would have been a very difficult primary, I think I could have won.”

Mr Biden had “a lot of data collected” which backed his confidence, the paper reported. In October 2015, after much press speculation and an organised attempt among activists to draft Mr Biden, the former vicepresident announced he would not run for the White House for a third time, after short runs in 1988 and 2008.