Amid Hillary Clinton's faltering favorability ratings and a growing din of voices on the left calling for an alternative, as well as a backup to the former secretary of state's candidacy, reports inside the Beltway indicate Vice President Joe Biden may be preparing for a run,
according to The Associated Press.
Biden has reportedly been consulting with friends, family and donors about challenging Clinton, according to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, while the AP reports that Josh Alcorn, a former top adviser and fundraiser for the late Beau Biden, has joined the Draft Biden super PAC, an addition that "marks the first clear sign that the close cadre of advisers surrounding the vice president may be taking the fledgling super PAC seriously."
Thus far, the group has been staffed by "volunteers and young operatives with few connections to Biden's inner circle," according to the AP.
When a CNN reporter on Monday asked White House spokesman Josh Earnest whether there was any truth to rumors that he was considering stepping down from his post early to help get Biden elected, Earnest sidestepped the question.
"I think there are a lot of people in Washington, D.C., that if — certainly a lot of Democrats — that if he made that decision they would be honored to work with him," he said, according to Politico, which cites a recent Quinnipiac University poll showing Biden with a 13 percent favorability rating among Democratic hopefuls, placing him in the same position as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and 1 point higher than former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
"But the fact is we've got some great candidates on the Democratic side already but ultimately each of the candidates will have to make up their own mind about whether or not they want to be a candidate."
Dowd wrote of the sentiment circulating among many Democrats that Clinton "seems more impatient than hungry" and "more cautious than charismatic" paralleled with the growing concern that "aside from the very liberal Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who could be approaching his ceiling in the early states, there is no backup if something blows up."
Further, according to Dowd, Biden's late son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in May, asked this father shortly before his death to promise to run for the presidency, "arguing that the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values."
Biden's inner circle, according to the AP, has begun looking into the details and logistics of assembling a campaign, including potential field staff in Iowa and filing deadlines.
A decision could come by September.
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