Jessica Estepa

USA TODAY

Because 2016 is the campaign that just won't die, Joe Biden decided Thursday was the night to share his feelings about Hillary Clinton's candidacy.

"I never thought she was a great candidate," the former vice president told the SALT conference in Las Vegas, according to reports.

To add salt to the wound, he continued, "I thought I was a great candidate."

It's a stance that he has consistently given in recent interviews. He has been critical of the Clinton campaign and noted that he believes he could have won the election.

(It's worth noting that Biden has not exclusively ruled out a 2020 bid, saying on Thursday, "Could I? Yes. Would I? Probably not.")

Even then, Biden — who never made an official 2016 bid, since he was dealing with the death of his son, Beau — conceded that Clinton "would have been a good president."

Biden and Clinton's history goes back to the 1990s, when Biden was in the Senate and Clinton was first lady. Their alliance generally continued when they were both senators, though that didn't keep them from having differences of opinion. When they were both running for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Biden said her Iraq proposals would lead to "disaster."

The two regularly discussed policy over breakfast when he was vice president and she was secretary of State.

"There's no woman like Hillary Clinton," Biden said in 2013.