Biden on 2020: 'Trump’s gonna be 74 — I’ll be 77 and in better shape'

Vice President Joe Biden continued toying with a 2020 White House run to challenge Donald Trump on Tuesday.

“I’m a great respecter of fate. I don’t plan on running again, but to say you know what’s gonna happen in four years I just think is not rational,” Biden said Tuesday night on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”


“I can’t see the circumstance in which I’d run, but what I’ve learned a long, long time ago, Stephen, is to never say never,” Biden continued. “You don’t know what’s going to happen. I mean, hell Donald Trump’s gonna be 74. I’ll be 77 and in better shape. I mean, what the hell?”

Biden suggested he was throwing his hat in the ring for 2020 during a chat with reporters in the Senate this week.

“Yeah, I am. I am going to run, in 2020,” he said to laughter. Asked for what, Biden clarified “for president.”

Pressed on whether he was committing to a 2020 bid, Biden, who considered mounting a campaign late last year, was noncommittal. “I'm not committing to not running,” he said. “I’m not committing to anything.”

Explaining his logic to Colbert, Biden said he learned the key to becoming the most popular man in America: “Announce you’re not running.”

He quipped Wednesday that he told reporters he was running for president for one reason: “So I could announce now I’m not running and be popular again.”

All jokes aside, the vice president closed the door on running for president. But he left it unlocked.

“I have no plans” to run, he said, “but I’m gonna stay deeply, deeply involved.”