Joe Biden got quick support from his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, when he informed his family that he’d decided against running for president.
But Jill Biden says she still was “disappointed” that her husband wouldn’t be on the 2016 ballot.
The two recalled the vice president’s decision in an interview with CBS that’s set to broadcast Sunday night on “60 Minutes.” The network aired a short clip of that interview on “Face the Nation” Sunday morning.
In it, Biden recalls telling his wife and surviving son that he wouldn’t be running, a decision he finally had reached months after the death of his son, Beau.
“I came home and Hunter, our son, was upstairs with mom — with Jill. And I walked in and I said, ‘You know, I just don’t think it’s time.’ I just decided — I don’t think we can run the kind of campaign we have to run to be able to win,” Biden said.
“And I remember, Jill just got up off the couch, gave me a big hug and said, ‘I think you’re right,'” he said.
Still, Jill Biden said she was disappointed, rather than relieved, that her husband wouldn’t take on Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley for the Democratic nomination to replace President Barack Obama.
“I think I was disappointed. You know, like I said in the beginning. I mean, I thought Joe would be a great president,” she said. “I’d seen his — in the 40 years we’ve been together, I’ve seen the strength of his character, his optimism, you know, his hope. … So I believed he would have been the best president.”