Dr. Jill Biden on Friday said that America missed out when her husband, Vice President Biden, decided against seeking the presidency last year.
“Well, you know, I say every day — I really do feel that Joe would’ve made a great president,” she said on NBC’s “Today.” “I think he has the character. I think he’s a convener. I think one of his strengths is compromise.
{mosads}“And so I feel, you know, America missed an opportunity,” Jill Biden added of her husband. “I don’t know. It just wasn’t the right time.”
Joe Biden ruled out a third Oval Office bid in October, likely signaling the end of a political career that has spanned four decades.
“Unfortunately, I believe we’re out of time — the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the [Democratic presidential] nomination,” he said in the White House Rose Garden with his wife and President Obama at his side.
Joe Biden spent months wrestling with whether he would enter the Democratic presidential primary after the death of his son, Beau Biden, the former attorney general of Delaware who died last May after battling brain cancer. He was 46.
The vice president cited the short window of time for fundraising and the strength of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton’s White House campaigns as reasons for remaining on the sidelines. He has since focused his efforts on Obama’s $1 billion “moonshot” for cancer research, rallying support for ending the disease.
Jill Biden on Friday said that her family is looking forward to its newfound freedom from public life, however.
“I think I’ll be glad to leave behind the fact that I haven’t driven a car in eight years. It will be nice having a little bit of independence again.”