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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Biden Decides Against Another Presidential Run. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired October 21, 2015 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[12:30:02] JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We intend to span the next 15 months fighting for what we've always cared about, what my family always cared about, with every ounce of our being and working along side of the president and the member of congress, and our future nominee. I am absolutely certain that we are fully capable of accomplishing extraordinary things.

We can do this. And when we do, America won't just win the future, we will own the finish line.

Thank you for all being so gracious to Jill and me, for the last six or eight months and for our whole career for that matter. But I'm telling you, we can do so much more.

I'm looking forward to continue to work with this man to get it done.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much.

BIDEN: Thank you all very much.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so the word from the vice president of the United States, specifically saying "While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent." He certainly was not silent in making this statement in the White House Rose Garden and telling everybody he's not going to run for the democratic presidential nomination. But sounding very much like that could have been a speech she would've delivered, if he had made the opposite decision if he had decided to go ahead and challenge Hillary Clinton, and challenge Senator Bernie Sanders and the other democrats for the nomination.

That could have been a speech, he could've also delivered at this time if the decision had gone the other way.

Jeff Zeleny is standing by, along with our White House Correspondent Michelle Kosinski.

Jeff, I think a lot of us are surprised, I had heard from some of this top associates in the recent days and weeks like you, like everyone. He was increasingly inclined to go ahead and run but he finally made the decision presumably today or last night that he had decided not to run.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that is right. He was telling many of his long-time friends who served with him in the senate, and many of his allies that he was leaning toward running and in fact was planning on running.

I mean just a couple of hours ago, the head of the International Firefighters Union said they thought he was running, he's very close to Biden.

But I am told that the decision came not today, but over a period of time, and he told some of his advisers this late Monday that he was wondering about this. But what he was doing yesterday was really sending a message sort of some parting words if you will to Hillary Clinton directly about how he thinks this town should work.

And Wolf that's what I'm so struck by here and him saying he's not running, he's saying that look both sides have to come together. So when you look at what's happening in Washington today we're here at the White House side, one side of Pennsylvania Avenue, just up Pennsylvania Avenue at the U.S. capitol.

Paul Ryan is essentially doing the same thing. So I think Joe Biden realized that time had run short, and some of the people he had reached out during the last couple of days or ten days or so who would have worked for him in Iowa, in New Hampshire, South Carolina, they had not heard back from him over the last several days.

So they were wondering if he was actually serious about this, he wanted to run for president, Wolf. He wanted to do this. But he simply could not actually pull it together in the end, he didn't think there was a winning path.

BLITZER: Yeah, he specifically said that he was out of time to effectively run for the democratic presidential nomination even though his family was now on board, they had gone through several months of mourning obviously for the sudden loss of their son Beau Biden.

And Michelle, I want to you in a moment. But David Axelrod is joining us on the phone, right now, our senior political commentator, former top adviser to President Obama.

Were you surprised, David?

David Axelrod: No, Wolf, I really wasn't. I mean I said from the beginning that I thought that at the end of the day, he wouldn't run, because nobody understands the toll and the cost of running for president on one's family and the emotional cost of running for president than Joe Biden.

And, you know, we all laud him for being candid about his feelings and being open about his feelings, and he's been telling us for months that he didn't know whether he had the emotional reserves to get there. And I think that kept him from doing what he obviously was drawn to do which was to run.

And I think that that tug and pull was going on for months, and ultimately time ran out because he couldn't resolve that question, that consulate.

BLITZER: And I know that Gloria, you have been hearing, Gloria Borger is with us as well.

Gloria, you've been hearing for months of the really difficult arduous decision making that was going through the vice president and his family as a result of the loss of their son Beau, and now the decision coming forward in the last few minutes that the vice president will not run for.

I want your reaction to the news.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, if you listen to Joe Biden, it's clear this is a man who really wanted to run, again, for president.

[12:35:01] But he said it himself and he told the truth as he very often does, he said look, "I just ran out of time." But he also said that he is a man who has found a purpose in public life.

And I think that what he tried to do was to set the stage for the next part of his public life which continues for the next 15 months. He was very poignant about talking about finding a cure for cancer which is of course took his son Beau.

And it's clear to me from talking to his very close associates, friends, staff, advisors that Biden really wanted in his heart to do this. But he's also a pragmatist, he's also been around politics along time. And he understand the toll it would take, as David was saying, he understood the organization that he would need.

And, you know, in the end, he made the decision not to do it, even though, just a week ago in talking to his friends, he sounded more and more like a candidate.

The more he talked about it, he got into it. The more and more he got into it. But again, he just decided to pull back because as he said, himself, he was just flat out of time. He didn't have enough time to organize.

BLITZER: Jake Tapper is with us as well.

Jake, I couldn't help but notice and I'm sure you did as well the one statement that he made once again, I think this is the fourth time he said it the last few days he says it's not naive to talk to Republicans, they're the opposition, they are not our enemies.

And that seems to have been a response to what Hillary Clinton said at the last CNN democratic presidential debate when she listed the Republicans as her enemy.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: There's no question that that's who he was addressing. And I think one of the reasons that we've heard such conflicting messages from the vice president is what we heard this afternoon was a man who very definitively thinks that he would be the best president of all of the people running for president. But he also sees absolutely no path for him to get to the White House as president. And that's why, you heard him give what sounded like almost like a campaign address today talking about the kind of America that he would like to be president of, he said he would like, to be if he could be anything, he would like to be the president that cures cancer that is responsible for curing cancer and ending cancer. But at the same time, he is a realist as Gloria said.

And I think one of the things that's has been really making this so difficult for the vice president is he would like to do it so much, and yet, it's just very difficult for anybody to conjure forth any sort of way in which he would get the democratic presidential nomination.

Liberals and Progressives are with Bernie Sanders right now, the party establishment and a lot of the people in the Democratic base such as various African-American groups, Latino groups seemed to supporting Hillary Clinton.

And there really just didn't seem to be a way for him to get the nomination. You had poll after poll to showing him that even if he joined the race he would come in third behind Hillary and behind Bernie.

And Democratic voter according to polls, were less and less interested especially after last week's debate in having him join the race.

So that's, I think the reason why there is this constant push and pull in what we heard from the vice president, and from those who spoke with the vice president.

He thinks he would be the best person to do the job, and yet, he also is somebody who's been around politics for a long time. And does not see anyway that he can actually beat Hillary Clinton and become the Democratic nominee.

BLITZER: Yeah, he's a realist that he specifically said he's out of time to effectively challenge Hillary Clinton for that matter.

And Jake, all the poll show that without Joe Biden in the democratic contest, that's good news for Hillary Clinton, her numbers go up.

She gains a lot more support than Bernie Sanders who is number two in the national polls.

TAPPER: And let me just also say that Hillary Clinton and the advisers had been looking at the vice president for months and trying to figure out how it is that they could defeat him if it came down to it. We heard that one of the pro Hillary Clinton groups was doing opposition research.

And there are some Democratic Party elders who think that the reason Hillary Clinton came out against that pacific trade deal that she worked to create as secretary of state. But now as a candidate is opposing that that really didn't have to do with offending off Bernie Sanders, that had to do without maneuvering Joe Biden who has very strong ties to labor. So there are some elders who think that that Hillary Clinton move was based on convincing that Joe Biden that there was not a lane in which to run.

BLITZER: And he obviously came to that conclusion as much as he would have loved to run for the president of United States, and as much of the speech that he deliver today in the Rose Garden could have been a speech he would've made, had he decided to run.

[12:40:05] He has decided that for practical reasons, he doesn't really have a good chance, he's out of time for all practical purposes.

Jake is going to stay with us, all of our reporters and analysts are going to stay with us. I'm going to throw it back to Ashleigh right now, to pick up our coverage. I'll be back at the top of the hour with the whole lot more big news, Ashleigh, the vice president of the United States telling the American people, he will not be seek the democratic presidential nomination.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The news a lot of people are waiting to hear one way or the another. And I can tell you this, as quickly as it came, Wolf, there's already a statement from the draft Biden organization, you may remember that's the organization behind the "Run, Joe, Run" campaign, you probably saw the commercial during the democratic debate.

Just going to quickly paraphrase here, "We're so grateful for the gigantic outpouring of support from hundreds of thousands of Americans around the country, in our effort to encourage the vice president to run, while the vice president has decided not the run, we know that over the next year he will stand up for all Americans and articulate a vision for the Americans future that will leave no one behind."

That's exactly the message it seems that the vice president was delivering in the rose garden with the president and his wife behind him.

If you missed it, it was only just a short time ago. Let me just replay a moment of the sound where the vice president made a crystal clear that he is not going to be running for president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BIDEN: As my family and I have worked through the grieving process. I've said all along what I've said time and again to others that it may very well be that that process by the time we get through it closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president.

That it might close, I have concluded it has closed. I know from previous experience that there is no timetable for this process, the process doesn't respect or much care about things like filing deadlines or debates and primaries and caucuses. But I also know that I could do this, if I couldn't do this if the family was not ready.

The good news is, the family has reached that point. But as I've said many times, my family has suffered loss and I hope there would come a time and I've said to many other families that sooner rather than later when you think of your love one that brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eyes.

Well, that's where the Biden's are today. Thank god.

Beau is our inspiration. Unfortunately, I believe we're out of time, the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination. But while I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent.

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.

And this is what I believe. I believe that President Obama has led this nation from crisis to recovery. And we're now on the cusp of resurgence, and I'm proud to the have played a part in that.

This party, our nation, will be making a tragic mistake if we walk away or attempt to undo the Obama legacy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: I want to bring in our Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta who's standing by live right now.

Jim, the one question I think a lot of people would have while hearing the vice president say, "Well, I'm not running, I will not be silent" does that mean he will be vocal for one candidate over another, I'm asking if he's going to endorse Hillary Clinton if that's just obvious or maybe not so much?

JIM ACOSTA, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I think it's a little too early for the endorsements, Ashleigh. I think Vice President Biden will be active in the campaign, I think if Hillary Clinton is named the nominee of this party that Vice President Biden will be out there enthusiastically supporting her.

I think at this point just based on the vice president's comments over the last few days in which he seemed to be, you know, really critiquing Hillary Clinton's comments especially when labeling Republicans as enemies that the vice president had to get a message across and that message was that people in Washington ought to be getting along a lot better than they are right now.

And, you know, quite frankly that's a message, I think is going to resonate with a lot of Americans no matter their political stripe.

But I think that will come in time. I think all wounds heal in time, but at the same time, Ashleigh, I think the Vice President Biden was just really staring reality in the face.

I think he was looking at just how far out in front Hillary Clinton was in terms of organization, fund raising, you know, they had just put out a list of mayors across the country who had endorsed her, you know, she had done the homework, she had the legwork, the groundwork to build a formidable organization and Vice President Biden just had not done that.

[12:45:15] I mean, the only key player that he have been talking to in recent days that we know about who was mobilizing to support him was the international Firefighters Union. I talked to the president of that union a few times over the last few days, Harold Schaitberger sounded very revved up, the president of that union over the weekend sounding very much like Joe Biden was going to jump into the race. I talked to him last night and this morning, he didn't sounds so revved up, so clearly something changed in the last 48 to 72 hours, it sounds it though the vice president and his team were coming to this conclusion.

And that is why we heard Vice President Biden say what he said a few moments ago. But, you know, despite that warm reception that the vice president had here Ashleigh, I should caution everybody that even here at the White House there were doubts about whether or not Vice President Biden could pull this off. You know, I talked to one senior official just recently who said that there is nobody in the White House that has a box of Joe Biden signs behind their desk, and partly while there is deep affection for Joe Biden here, they just don't think he was going to be able to overcome what Hillary Clinton had put together in the months leading up to where we are right now.

And having said all that, others some here at the White House would love to see Joe Biden run for president, be president? Absolutely but they see Hillary Clinton as somebody who is going to protect and perhaps extend President Obama's legacy, and there were some quite frankly fearful in the White House. We thought that, you know, Joe Biden had the potential to really ruin all of that if he were not successful over somewhat get the nomination and be unsuccessful in the general election campaign.

That is the frank candid assessment among some people here in the White House. They were concerned about Joe Biden getting into this race, and I think there was a lot of pressure quite frankly on the vice president to come to this decision.

I just have to say, it was extraordinary political theater to be out here, Ashleigh. I mean, it was unbelievable to see us all called together at the last minute to witness what we just saw, but in many ways, it was a kind of a fitting signoff for this vice president. He's going to be very active, very vocal in the coming months.

BANFIELD: Yeah.

ACOSTA: But the way that Joe Biden sort of wrapped up his time here in Washington and talked about what his son means to him and so forth, it was quite something to watch. Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: I got to say I asked wolf at the top of the show, is this the best kept secret in Washington, because it is not often you can scramble a news conference in the Rose Garden with potus standing behind you with absolutely no one knowing within minutes that it happening.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. BANFIELD: And this is the proof, this is the show we had planned for today, and we are not going to do it, Jim Acosta and thank you for doing this one. Thank you for that.

ACOSTA: We'll be here.

BANFIELD: Jim Acosta giving us some, I know you've got a busy day ahead of you. We've got some numbers that might actually tell a little bit more of the story as well.

Coming back after the break, Joe Biden may have said the window was closing, but the numbers might be more significant. Poll numbers, money number, how does all of that factor into this huge decision that was just announced as the vice president emerged with the president and his wife to tell the press corps and the rest of us he will not be running for president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:52:32] Our Breaking News here at CNN, the most sought after decision in the last several months, and that is will the vice president run for the Democratic nomination, and the answer was crystal clear, just moments ago Joe Biden coming out to the Rose Garden at the White House flanked by the President and by his wife to say no, it is not going to happen, the window has closed in his estimation. Although his family he says supported him despite the fact that they have suffered this tremendous loss and the death of their son. He said he is certainly would be ready, but at the window was closed and it was just not do-able.

So there are a few other things that weren't announced in the Rose Garden and that is this. Some recent polling that has come out, in fact CNN/ORC releasing some poll numbers just recently suggesting that with Biden in the race, Senator Clinton would have this lead, 45 to 29 over Bernie Sanders, but Joe biden would come in far behind at 18 percent and without Biden in the race, look at the increase in the lead that Mrs. Clinton would have over Mr. Sanders 56 to 33, a 23 point jump. Those poll numbers don't necessarily lie, although a lot of people say their parlor games, but polling matters and so does money. And when it comes to money, Hillary Rodham Clinton has been able to raised a lot of money, in fact just in the third quarter her presidential campaign raised $28 million and that brought the entire haul to about $75 million.

Our Brianna Keilar covers that campaign, she's our Senior Political Correspondent. She joins me live from Washington.

So Brianna, yes, you can say that the window is closing, you can say technically it's getting tougher and tougher to mount this kind of a campaign, but realistically, the door was open. He could still get on the ballot in all of the states he needed to, and so was this more about money and polling or about the technicality.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think it was a little bit about both. And I actually think that it became clear even as early as January 2014 that the lane for the vice president was getting narrower than certainly he had wanted, that is when priorities USA the big donor super PAC that had backed President Obama in his reelection in 2012, shifted over and said that it would support Hillary Clinton if she chose to run. We saw that super PAC hire a number of long-time Obama hands, former Obama hands including his 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina, and that was a really stinging moment for Vice President Joe Biden where it appeared that Hillary Clinton had been anointed as the caretaker of President Obama's legacy over him, so that was very difficult.

[12:55:10] I will tell you we are getting a little reaction unofficial here, we are waiting for the official reaction from the Brooklyn headquarters of Hillary Clinton, but one Clinton aid telling me that Joe Biden is going to be a big asset in the general election. The assumption there being that Hillary Clinton is the nominee, they are of course relieved as you spelled out in those poll numbers, but you could see that they're trying to offer some goodwill and what has been a difficult decision.

One last thing just to note, Ashleigh, I know privately that the vice president has been telling some of his friends that he really did feel he was the best person for the job in the field in the prospective field. So this is a difficult decision for him certainly.

BANFIELD: Brianna, stand by, if you will I want to stick over to Capitol Hill where our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash joins live. Dana, I was going ask you today about Paul Ryan and the possibility that he actually make run for speaker if he gets the demands that he wants met, but I'm not going to do that, because this is the Breaking News now. Do you have reaction from Capitol Hill on this?

DANA BASH, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Not official reaction yet no, but already hearing from some people here, remember that Joe Biden spent a lot of time here, on decades in the U.S. Senate, so certainly, he has a lot of friends here. And even some of those who really like Joe Biden are relieved that he is not running. Because of the concern that it would divide the party and I just got an e-mail from a Democratic official who said that was concerned about the tone that Biden repeated actually today about, you know, clearly aimed at Hillary Clinton saying Republicans aren't our enemies, we have to get together, we have work together and this official has said that his word that it is stoking division within the party, and he needs to either get on board or get out of the way.

Presumably Joe Biden will get on board at some point with the Hillary Clinton campaign obviously, that's the next big question is whether or not he will endorse Hillary Clinton or stay on the sidelines and watch the big fight between Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. But I just want to reiterate quickly with other people have been saying from their sources and my sources, was also, people who are close to him, close to the maybe campaign in waiting we're saying that there really was a campaign in waiting, and there is a lot of surprise here given the moves that they made over the past week or so that they decided to bow out.

BANFIELD: All right. Dana Bash, standby if you will. I want to bring in Ron Brownstein if I can, he's the Senior Political Analyst for CNN and Editorial Director of the National Journal, get on board or get out of the way, it turns out, I guess he's going to get out the way, but Ron, will he really get out of the way.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah.

BANFIELD: Do you think that he's going to stand behind Hillary Clinton perhaps either before or after a nominee is chosen if it's presumably going to be Hillary?

BROWNSTEIN: Certainly after a nominee, and him not running I think greatly increases her, improve her position. Joe Biden faced a uphill climb for the nomination, but if he got into the race he was a missile aimed directly at her coalition. He's intrinsics strengths are the white working class voters which are presumably going to be stronger for her than for Bernie Sanders, or President Obama he was a threat to her hold on the minority voters which is really her firewall in this race, with him out the race her path is much clearer especially once you get past those all-white states of Iowa and New Hampshire and the more diverse states in the Democratic coalition, without him there are Bernie Sanders now has a doubly larger challenge or breaking into that minority vote which could be so crucial to her.

BANFIELD: Yeah. All right Ron, thank you so much for your insight. I know you're going to have a lot more to say about this CNN is covering this throughout the day to day and just a recap for you if you're watching, blink and you missed it.

The Vice President without any warning, really, coming into the Rose Garden at the White House with the President behind him to announce that he in fact would not be seeking any kind of position in the presidential race, certainly not running for the Democratic nomination, which as that you just heard Ron Brownstein says really paves the way for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her numbers are soaring and certainly when the polling does not include Joe Biden her numbers really do soar.

Thank you for joining us, everyone. I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Wolf Blitzer. He's going to start right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)