Biden Running in 2020? His Daughter Says 'He'll Make a Decision When the Time Comes'

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Dr. Jill Biden, Livelihood founder Ashley Biden and former Vice President Joe Biden on February 7 in New York City. Getty Images

Former Vice President Joe Biden is "considering" running for president in 2020—if the 74-year-old is in good health and, well, can win, says his daughter.

"A lot can happen in four years, and we know this as a family," Ashley Biden, the youngest of Biden's surviving two children, told Women's Wear Daily. "If he is in good health, knock on wood, and seeing what the landscape is at the time, yeah, I think he is considering it."

Biden was indeed thinking of taking on Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination last year but opted out, citing the emotional repercussions of the death of his son, Beau Biden, from brain cancer in 2015.

"When he passed, part of my soul was gone," Biden told the Council of Foreign Relations in September 2016. "And no woman or man should ever run for president unless they are capable and willing to give every ounce of their energy to the endeavor. And I just wasn't."

But after Donald Trump defeated Clinton, Biden openly expressed his second thoughts about not running, claiming he would've beaten Trump. Biden left the White House with a 61 percent approval rating and remains a popular Democratic figure.

He has remained busy in public life since leaving the West Wing, overseeing his eponymous public service foundation and co-chairing the Biden Cancer Initiative.

"Right now his focus is on the [Biden] Foundation and Cancer Moonshot, as well as getting other Democrats elected," his daughter said.

It's unclear how Biden—who would be just shy of his 78th birthday on Election Day 2020—would fare against younger candidates. In May, Public Policy Polling said he would do better than any other Democrat in a hypothetical matchup against Trump in 2020, beating the incumbent 54 to 40 percent. The same survey showed Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren would also defeat Trump, though by smaller margins.

But that report did not include other rising-star Democrats, including Senators Chris Murphy, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand.

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