President Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden as a ‘1-percenter’ who was ‘taken off the trash heap by Obama’ as speculation heats up over whether the former Vice President will run against him in 2020.
Trump called in to Fox News host Jeanine Pirro’s show on Saturday night and dismissed Biden’s chances of unseating him in the next election.
‘You know, a lot of people say Biden’s doing okay, but he was always a 1-percenter,’ the President told Pirro.
‘He ran two or three times, he never got above 1 per cent.
President Donald Trump called in to Fox News host Jeanine Pirro’s show on Saturday night and dismissed Biden’s chances of unseating him in the next election
Trump’s comments came hours after a new report surfaced indicating that Biden (above) has told Democratic Party officials that he is running for President
‘And then Obama came along and took him off the trash heap, and he became a Vice President, and now he’s probably leading.
‘But he’s basically a 1% guy. He’s weak.
‘So we’ll see what happens with him. But I think he’s leading right now, from what I understand.’
Trump’s comments came hours after a new report surfaced indicating that Biden has told Democratic Party officials that he is running for President.
Biden, 76, has reportedly told friends: ‘If I’m walking, I’m running.’
There were rumors that this coming Tuesday Biden would officially make an announcement, though that appears unlikely at this point, according to Axios.
One confidant told Axios that Biden is ‘closer than he ever was in 2016’ and that he’s ‘serious in his discussions with potential supporters.’
Biden has yet to hire campaign aides or a staff, and Axios cautions that he remains officially undecided.
Biden’s younger brother, Frank, 65, believes that the former Vice President will run.
Frank Biden said Joe would make a decision with family members ‘very soon.’
In an interview with the Palm Beach Post, Frank Biden revealed that the family’s Pennsylvania branch voted for Donald Trump after feeling ‘slighted’ by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
He also spoke about the failures of the Clinton campaign.
Biden’s younger brother, Frank, 65, believes that the former Vice President will run. Frank Biden said Joe would make a decision with family members ‘very soon’
Joe Biden helped clear the way for Clinton when he decided not to run, citing the death of his son Beau, after a battle with brain cancer.
‘We never would have lost Pennsylvania, and all my relatives — the Finnegan family — who voted for Donald Trump because they felt slighted by Hillary and her campaign,’ he said, citing Clinton’s loss of the Keystone state.
‘We never would have not gone to Michigan as the campaign decided not to do because they felt entitled to the votes of those people,’ he continued.
‘Assumptive politics is losing politics. You have to work for every single vote and people have to know individually, collectively and severally that you care about them, that they’re important,’ he added.
Clinton did campaign in Michigan, though only late in the campaign, and ended up losing the state.
She didn’t go to Wisconsin, another state she lost.
Her final event of the campaign as in Philadelphia, but she still lost a state where she, too, had family roots.
Frank Biden, a senior advisor to a Florida law firm, predicted: ‘I think we’re going to run.’
He told the Palm Beach paper, which sometimes writes about President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in its society pages: ‘You can say that “Frank thinks his brother’s going to run.”
‘Now, he could surprise me. But I know the family’s behind him 100 percent.’
Frank Biden noted that Sen. Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat (although he does caucus with them)
Frank Biden complained about Hillary Clinton’s loss of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio. Here Biden (C) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) attend a ceremony to unveil a portrait honoring retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) (L) on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. December 8, 2016.
He added: ‘I believe Joe should run. I’m urging him to run and have been for a long, long time.’
But he offered a caveat: ‘You have to understand our family structure. I’m the youngest brother. My sister’s the real boss. And Jill [Biden’s wife]. It’s an Irish matriarchy. They have the greatest influence,’ he said, mentioning Valerie Biden Owens.
He also took a shot at independent Bernie Sanders, who is considering his own run and who battled Clinton.
‘My personal politics are not as far left as many of the candidates seem to be. You know, Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat. He’s not a member of the Democratic Party. He’s an avowed socialist. I’m not. But there’s some shared ideas. This idea of having to be put in a bag, having to be either this or that ideologically I think is hugely limiting. What I know Joe looks at is he looks at an individual policy decision based on its merits,’ he said.
Of his older brother’s health, he said: ‘I laugh, I mean, the most laughable thing to me because I’m an exercise nut, and I look at this president, who is obese and probably couldn’t walk 18 holes of golf, is compared to Joe in some way, shape or form.’
He continued: ‘Joe works out four days a week. He’s in better shape than he was when he was 65.’
If Joe Biden does enter the race, it will be a crowded Democratic field. Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (left) and former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro (right) have both stated their intention to run
If Joe Biden does enter the race, it will be a crowded Democratic field.
Former mayor of San Antonio, Texas and Obama-era cabinet member Julian Castro launched his bid on Saturday to become the nation’s first Hispanic president, scheduling his announcement in a border state central to America’s immigration debate.
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a progressive Democrat, said Friday she will officially announce her presidential run in the coming days.
U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris are also expected to make their candidacies official.
Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, is also considering a possible run.