Vice President Joe Biden Will Not Run for President

Vice President Joe Biden ended months of speculation Wednesday by announcing he will not run for president, clearing a major hurdle for Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and eliminating a potential critic of her tenure as secretary of state.

Speaking at the White House alongside his wife, Jill, and President Barack Obama, Biden said time ran out while he was grieving the death of his son to now take on a successful campaign for the Democratic Party’s nomination. Joseph “Beau” Biden III died of brain cancer in May.

“Unfortunately, I believe we’re out of time, the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination,” Biden said.

However, while he won’t challenge Clinton, Biden made clear that he would be a prominent voice during the upcoming election season. “While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent,” Biden said. He also offered praise to Obama for leading “this nation from crisis to recovery, and we’re now on the cusp of resurgence.”

Biden would have given Democratic voters a viable alternative to Clinton’s more hawkish stance on many global affairs. Her current top challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is far more consumed with domestic issues, like income inequality and health care, and has left a relative vacuum when it comes to criticisms of Clinton’s time as the top U.S. diplomat.

Biden, on the other hand, has a deep foreign affairs track record, dating back to his long career as a U.S. senator representing Delaware and his tenure as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. When they both served in the Obama administration’s highest echelons, from 2009 to 2013, Biden was at odds with Clinton on issues ranging from Libya to Afghanistan to the killing of Osama bin Laden.

He said Democrats also need to focus on increasing opportunities for the middle class, improving race relations, and fighting for increased rights for the gay community. He lamented he would not be the president to help cure cancer.

“I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation,” he said.

The vice president, 72, served six terms in the Senate and unsuccessful presidential bids in 1988 and 2008. He subsequently joined Obama’s ticket in 2008, and helped to defeat Sen. John McCain of Arizona that year, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in 2012.

In making his announcement, Biden struck a bipartisan tone, calling on Republicans and Democrats to work together to solve the country’s problems.

“They are our opposition. They’re not our enemies,” Biden said, referring to the GOP.

“Four more years of this kind of pitched battle may be more than this country can take,” he added. “We have to be one America again.”

Now, it appears as if Clinton has a relatively clear path to the Democratic nomination. Both the NBC News/Wall Street Journal and ABC News/Washington Post polls released Tuesday show Clinton with a huge lead over Sanders. Biden was considered by many as the most capable challenge to Clinton, who also served with Biden in the Senate when she represented New York.

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