Vice President Joe Biden said President Barack Obama offered to give him money to help with expenses while his son Beau was battling cancer and praised Bernie Sanders during a wide-ranging interview.

On Monday, Biden told CNN that Obama had made the offer to help him financially during lunch after Biden told him he was considering selling his house to raise funds to help his son Beau.

Biden said at the time of the lunch it appeared Beau, who was losing his ability to speak, might have to resign his position as Delaware's attorney general because of the illness.

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Vice President Joe Biden said President Barack Obama offered to give him money to help with expenses while his son Beau was battling cancer and praises Bernie Sanders during wide-ranging interview with CNN

During the interview on Monday, Biden disclosed that Obama made the offer to help him financially during lunch after Biden told him he was considering selling his house to raise funds to help his son Beau

Biden said that Obama told him, 'I'll give you the money. Whatever you need, I'll give you the money' and asked Biden to promise that he would not sell his house

Beau Biden died of brain cancer in May 2015 at age 46.

'My concern is if Beau resigns there is nothing to fall back on, his salary. But I said I worked it out, Jill and I will sell the house and we'll be in good shape,' Biden said.

'He [Obama] got up and said: "Don't sell that house. Promise me you won't sell the house,"' Biden said.

'He [Obama] said, "I'll give you the money. Whatever you need, I'll give you the money. Don't Joe, Promise me. Promise me."'

'His love of family and my family, and my love of his family... it's personal. It's family,' Biden said.

Biden, 73, announced in October he would not run for president after wrestling with doubts about whether he and his family were ready for a grueling campaign while still mourning Beau's death.

During the interview, Biden also spoke about Bernie Sanders who he described as more authentic on economic inequality than Hillary Clinton and defended Sanders' record on gun control.

Biden said Sanders (pictured on Sunday during a rally in Iowa) speaks to 'a yearning that is deep and real' on issues of wealth disparity and people left out of the econom

During the interview, Biden also spoke about Bernie Sanders who he described as more authentic on economic inequality than Hillary Clinton and defended Sanders' record on gun control.

Weighing in on the Democratic race he almost joined, Biden said he never felt Clinton was the prohibitive favorite to win.

Biden said Sanders speaks to 'a yearning that is deep and real' on issues of wealth disparity and people left out of the economy.

He said Sanders had credibility on the issue, but that for Clinton, the issue was relatively new.

'Hillary's focus has been other things up to now, and that's been Bernie's — no one questions Bernie's authenticity on those issues,' Biden said.

He went on to say people question anybody who hasn't been talking about the issue that long.

The vice president also said Clinton, who has coalesced much of the Democratic establishment's support, had a high bar to meet as the perceived favorite to win her party's nomination.

Biden (pictured with Beau in 2008), 73, announced in October he would not run for president after wrestling with doubts about whether he and his family were ready for a grueling campaign while still mourning Beau's death

'His love of family and my family, and my love of his family... it's personal. It's family,' Biden said of Obama as the pair are picture hugging above during Beau's funeral in June

'I never thought she was a prohibitive favorite. I don't think she ever thought she was a prohibitive favorite,' said Biden, who praised Clinton at other points in the interview.

Biden's remarks offered some of the first public insight into his machinations about the 2016 race and particularly the Democratic field.

Biden and Obama have not endorsed, and Obama's chief of staff has said the president won't take sides in the primary.

Biden's endorsement would be highly coveted by any of the Democratic candidates.

But a campaign dispute erupted last week between Sanders and Clinton after Obama, aiming to ramp up political pressure on gun control, said he wouldn't endorse or campaign for any candidate who opposes what he described as common sense gun control, and he mentioned liability for gun-makers as a key issue.

White House officials later noted that Sanders has said he's open to revisiting the liability issue.

'Bernie Sanders has said that he thought the president's approach is the correct approach. Bernie Sanders said that he thinks there should be liability now,' Biden said.