There is no "good reason" to believe Russian President Vladimir Putin when he says Russia did not meddle in the 2016 presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday.
"I don't believe Putin," Biden told NBC's "Today" show, where he was featured in all four hours of its programming while promoting his new book, "Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose."
"There's no good reason to believe Putin, in my view," said Biden. "I don't believe an objective person should believe Putin on this score."
On Saturday, Trump said Putin once again denied interfering in the election. The president, while not saying he believes Putin, he believe that "when he tells me that he means it."
Biden Monday recalled in his book telling Putin that he had "no soul," and said Monday that the Russian leader's response to him was that "'we understand one another.'"
"I wanted to make it clear to him I understood where he was coming from, and he understood that I knew where he was coming from," said Biden. "I don't believe Putin at all. They did meddle. He was responsible for it."
Biden also discussed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's loss, noting that she'd never had a chance to get her message out.
"No one can tell me what her position was on the things that affect the middle class," said Biden, but he doesn't blame all that on her as a candidate.
"It was on the nature of the way the campaign was run," said Biden. "For example, the second debate. You knew Martha Raddatz, you knew she was going to ask about the tape and about groping, and you knew she was going to turn and say to Hillary, what do you think?
"My argument was, 'you should have said everybody knows Donald Trump. Let me tell you what I think about how I'm going to change your life.'"
Biden continued that the first time he'd ever heard about claims former Democratic National Committee interim Chairwoman Donna Brazile made in her own new book, including about Clinton's control of the DNC and talk about replacing Clinton with him as the nominee was when he saw the book.
"I give you my word, the first time I or my staff heard about that was in the book," said Biden, insisting he would have never taken the nomination, as he supported Clinton.
"I did 83 campaign events for Hillary," said Biden. "I think I can say I worked as hard for Hillary as anyone else. She would have been a first-rate president. I made a judgment well before that, that I was not prepared to run for president. I was not ready, in terms of my family. So, no. I would never have done it."
Biden added that he does not know if he could have defeated Trump for the White House, had he been the nominee.
"The polling data said yes, but I wasn't in the race," said Biden. "You have to be in the race. It's a tough game."
Biden said he's "not closing the door" on a presidential race in 2020, but he "honest to God" hasn't made up his mind about that, as he'd rather focus on his book and on Democrats winning the upcoming off-year elections.
"I've been around too long," said Biden. "I'm a great respecter of fate. But who knows what the situation is going to be a year and a half from now? I don't have any idea. I'm in good health now. I'm in good shape. Knock as wood, as my mother would say. I don't know. That's the truth."
Biden also discussed writing his book, a memoir to his son, Beau, who died following a battle with brain cancer.
"It was much harder to write than I thought it would be," said Biden. "I wrote it because I wanted [people] to know what an extraordinary man my son was. He was truly was an extraordinary, honorable man. His brother and his sister.
“I want them to know, I want the public to know about him, and depth of his sense of duty. But I want people to know, those people out there, who have gone through what I have gone through and worse, is there's hope."