White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest sprung a trap set for him by ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl on Monday after he was asked if President Obama would support Vice President Biden over Hillary Clinton if Biden ran for the Democratic nomination.
Earnest said that his boss considers picking Biden as his running mate "the smartest decision he ever made in politics."
"I assume that means the president would support Vice President Biden if he were to run, since it’s obviously a better decision than the secretary of state he chose, so—" Karl said trollishly. "You said it was the best decision he'd made."
"It was, and I think the president spoke at quite some length about the appreciation, respect, and admiration he has for the service of Secretary Clinton, particularly in her four years as secretary of state," Earnest said.
"Just not his best decision," Karl said.
Speculation about Vice President Biden’s intention to jump into the presidential race was fueled over the weekend by reports that Biden met with progressive darling Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.).
Clinton, formerly the prohibitive frontrunner in the race, has lost ground due to concerns over her storage of secret information on a non-government email server while secretary of state.