The former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley on Sunday welcomed the prospect of Vice-President Joe Biden running for president in 2016, saying it would be good to have another “lifelong Democrat in the race”.

O’Malley denied the remark was a veiled criticism of Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont and self-declared democratic socialist who has eclipsed O’Malley as a challenger to Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

On Saturday Biden, who is widely reported to be considering entry to the race, met Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren in Washington. According to CNN, which broke the news of the meeting, the two politicians lunched alone for an hour, and discussed economic policy.

“I have a great deal of respect for Vice-President Biden,” O’Malley said, in an appearance on ABC. “He’s a very, very good and decent man, it would be nice to have at least one more lifelong Democrat in the race, and I think his wisdom and his experience would add much to this Democratic conversation.”

Asked if that was a criticism of Sanders – who on Saturday night addressed the latest in a succession of thousands-strong audiences, this time in Charleston, South Carolina, O’Malley smiled and said: “No, it’s a compliment to Vice-President Biden.”

O’Malley did not directly respond to criticism from the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, who this week responded to an O’Malley campaign event outside one of his hotels in Las Vegas by saying he knew “nothing” about the former Maryland governor.

Trump also called O’Malley a “disgusting, weak, pathetic little baby” for apologising to Black Lives Matter protesters who interrupted a campaign appearance in Phoenix.

On Sunday, O’Malley repeated his call for more Democratic debates to be held, and sooner, in order for the currently five-strong field to outline polices and respond to “hate-mongering” from Trump and others in the 17-strong Republican field on issues including women’s rights and immigration.

The first Democratic debate of the 2016 race will be held in Nevada on 15 October. The first Republican debate, in Cleveland on 6 August, attracted huge press and public interest and helped catapult Trump to the front of the field. The second GOP debate will take place in California on 16 September.

O’Malley, who said he wanted to outline policy positions on wage stagnation, education and energy and climate change, said Democrats were “really hurting ourselves” by not staging more debates sooner.

In the latest RealClearPolitics.com average of polls, O’Malley sat fourth out of six in a Democratic field including Biden, with 1.7%. Clinton led with 49.3% to 25% for Sanders and 12% for the vice-president.

Former Virginia senator Jim Webb and former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee – neither a lifelong Democrat, the first having served in the Reagan administration as secretary of the navy and the second having entered politics as a liberal Republican – scored 1.3% and 0%, respectively.

Vice-President Joe Biden and then secretary of state Hillary Clinton in 2012. Photograph: Cliff Owen/AP

Also on Sunday a senior adviser for the Draft Biden Super Pac told Fox News Sunday: “We have a grass-roots list of 200,000 people that’s growing every day.”

Josh Alcorn was a close confidante of Beau Biden, the vice-president’s late son who reportedly encouraged his father to run for the White House a third time. On Fox, he added that Biden “may not have the financial resources, but there is a groundswell of support”.

Prominent Democratic politicians also discussed Biden’s plans. The governor of California, Jerry Brown, told NBC: “All I can say is if I were Hillary, I would say don’t jump in. If I were Joe Biden, I would probably give it very serious consideration.”

Brown also said the ongoing political furore surrounding Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state carried a “dark energy” and was a substantial challenge for her campaign.

“It is almost like a vampire. She is going to have to find a stake and put it right through the the heart of these emails in some way,” Brown said.

The former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson told ABC he would endorse Clinton. An energy secretary and ambassador to the United Nations under Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, Richardson told ABC he had “patched things up” with the couple after endorsing Barack Obama in 2008.



“I’m supporting her now,” Richardson said. “She’s the best candidate by far.”