Biden may consider 2016 presidential run

US Vice President Joe Biden‘s associates have resumed discussions about a 2016 presidential run after putting aside such deliberations during his son’s illness and death earlier this year.

In a move that could threaten to upend the narrative of Hillary Clinton’s inevitability, Vice President Joe Biden is said to be actively exploring the possibility of a 2016 presidential run.

The Christian Science Monitor reported on July 3 that businessman Jon Cooper put the probability of Biden running at 80 percent.

After the breakfast, sources said word spread quickly inside Clinton’s camp that Biden’s team appeared to be sounding out top fundraisers about whether the vice president can raise the necessary cash to compete with the Democratic front-runner at this late date.

The dramatic death bed exchange was revealed in a piece published Saturday by New York Times’ columnist Maureen Dowd.

On May 30, Biden’s son, Beau, died of brain cancer at the age of 46, ushering in a period of mourning for the vice president and his family.

Kendra Barkoff, the vice president’s press secretary, said Biden was spending his time working on President Barack Obama’s agenda, not on planning his own potential presidential campaign.

“He was so close to Beau and it was so heartbreaking that, frankly, I thought initially he wouldn’t have the heart [to run]”, supporter Michael Thornton said.

“Joe Biden knows what Beau wants”.

The White House had no immediate comment on Biden’s plans and the Times quoted a spokeswoman for Biden as saying: “As the Biden family continues to go through this hard time, the vice president is focused on his family and immersed in his work”.

However, the veep’s past record of making a run at the Oval Office may leave even the most jaded of political junkies scratching their collective chins as to why anyone would sweat a Biden run.

A Biden candidacy could also present an awkward situation for the vice president and Clinton, considering their close relationship. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) populist message, have led some Biden backers to wonder whether there is an opening for the vice president.

Biden has been slowly returning to a normal schedule following the death of his son two months ago. Momentum for a Biden run hasn’t slowed, organizers say, as Clinton begins laying out policy positions in early voting states.

Jumping into the race so late in the game is likely to bring some obstacles, despite the fact that Biden has higher favorability than any other candidate in the race, including Clinton.