Brother: Ex-San Antonio mayor Castro will run for president
WASHINGTON – Julián Castro has barely hidden his intention to run for the Democrats’ 2020 presidential nomination, but Thursday night, his twin brother, Joaquin, let the cat totally out of the bag on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
“Just tell us,” Colbert goaded Julián, who was playing coy, “isn’t leadership about decisiveness? Right now, you’ve got an opportunity to prove to the American people that you have what it takes to sit in the Oval Office and make the tough calls ”
“I’ll speak on his behalf here: He’s going to run for president, how about that?” replied Joaquin Castro, a congressman from San Antonio.
“I have heard from someone very close to you,” Colbert responded to Julián, “that you are going to run for president.”
Julián, a former San Antonio mayor and housing secretary in the Obama administration, nodded while laughing.
“I think it’s going to be a great journey,” he said to applause. “I think the country needs new leadership now more than ever.”
On Wednesday, Julián Castro announced that he was setting up an exploratory committee and would declare his intentions Jan. 12 in San Antonio.
Joaquin Castro joked that Federal Election Commission lawyers need to know that he, not his brother, said a candidacy for president is a sure thing. The distinction isn’t necessary; to the FEC, an exploratory committee is the same as a campaign committee.