Second Lady Jill Biden didn't sound like she was Ready for Hillary Clinton on Friday, telling The Today Show that "maybe America missed an opportunity" with Vice President Joe Biden deciding not to run for president.
Joe Biden publicly mulled a run while mourning the death of his son Beau last year. He ultimately decided against it, leaving the Democratic field essentially a two-person race between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).
Biden later said he regretted every day his decision, although adding it was the right one for his family.
"I really do feel Joe would have made a great president," his wife said. "I think he has the character. I think that he's a convener. I think that one of his strengths is compromise, so I feel maybe America missed an opportunity.
"I don't know. It just wasn't the right time."
Joe Biden remains one of the Democratic Party's most popular figures. If he had run and been elected in 2016, he would have been the oldest president to take office in history at age 74.
His rhetoric about Clinton during the 2016 campaign has been mixed. While President Obama has appeared to favor his former secretary of state earning the nomination, Biden questioned Clinton's authenticity on speaking about wealth inequality compared to Sanders.
The Wall Street Journal reported on his and Clinton's complicated relationship:
Mr. Biden, who often talks about his upbringing in Scranton, Pa., in a family that endured financial hardships, has shown an affinity with working-class whites that could help overcome doubts about Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy. He appears willing to hit the trail for the potential Democratic ticket.
Looming over the possible collaboration, however, are tensions between two of the nation’s most important Democrats: a sitting vice president and a former secretary of state who might wind up with the job he has long coveted.
In one notable instance, Mr. Biden said in a January television interview that Mrs. Clinton was "relatively new" to the issue of income inequality and that no one doubted Mr. Sanders’s "authenticity" on that issue.
Within minutes, according to people on both sides familiar with the matter, an aide to Mr. Biden got a phone call from Clinton campaign senior adviser Jennifer Palmieri insisting he was "wrong" in his characterization. She asked if he had more interviews scheduled and what else he planned to say. The next day, Mr. Biden went on TV and softened his comments.