The 2016 presidential election is just a few weeks behind us, but already some major politicians are getting questions about whether they’ll run for president in 2020.

Late Show host Stephen Colbert popped the question to Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday night, pointing out that Biden recently joked with reporters about a run in 2020. Biden demurred, but he wasn’t definitive.

"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. "Never say never. You don’t know what’s going to happen. I mean, hell, Donald Trump’s going to be 74; I’ll be 77, in better shape."

Normally it would feel too early to start discussing the next election. It’s pretty hard to imagine anyone appreciating talk of 2016 the December after President Barack Obama got reelected in November 2012. But among a lot of liberals, there’s a desperate desire to find some sort of hope in the next few years — hence the talk about Republican electors defecting from Trump, the presidential recount, and so on. As those efforts fail, the next obvious target is going to be finding a way to kick Trump out of the White House in the next election.

Watch: It’s now on America’s institutions — and Republicans — to check Donald Trump