May 01, 2017
Former Vice President Joe Biden seems to have quieted rumors that he could appear as the Democratic nominee for president in 2020 during a speech to New Hampshire Democrats on Sunday.
"When I got asked to speak, I knew it was going to cause speculation," Biden said, according to The Associated Press. "Guys, I'm not running."
His announcement wasn't well-received – many booed in response, while one person yelled, "Run, Joe, run."
Biden moved on with his speech at the 100 Club dinner in Manchester and focused on subjects like dignity and optimism as well as raising money for future Democratic campaigns, according to The Boston Globe.
"I know it seems like we're hopelessly divided," he said. "I know it feels like we're hopelessly stuck in a political death match and we can't figure out how to get out of it. But we are better than that. I've always believed that we're strongest when we act as one America."
Biden said in December that he was "going to run in 2020."
"I'm not committing not to run," he said when asked if he was serious. "I'm not committed to anything. I learned a long time ago, fate has a strange way of intervening."
The former vice president also said that he regrets "not being president" during a Q&A at New York's Colgate University in March.
Since leaving his position at the White House, Biden has been named the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he'll lead the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
He'll have an office on the University City campus but will be mainly based in Washington, D.C.