Vice President Biden says he would not stay in the administration if Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wins the presidency but plans to continue working on his “moonshot” effort to fight cancer from outside the White House.
{mosads}“I’m not going to stay on in the administration,” Biden said in an interview with Stat. “What Hillary talked about is, as I understood it, me being able to have the same authority over elements of her administration from the outside that I have now from the inside, to be able to coordinate those efforts.”
Biden has thrown himself into an effort to accelerate cancer research, aiming to achieve 10 years’ worth of progress in five years.
He also said that he hopes to continue work on the moonshot even if Republican nominee Donald Trump wins the presidency.
“I would hope [Trump] would bring, attract, out of just pure patriotic necessity, some very good minds to let him know that there is a lot of money we’re spending in the federal government, billions of dollars on medical research,” Biden said, “and there is a consensus.”
Biden has announced a series of initiatives as part of his effort to fight cancer.
For example, Biden last week announced a new online search system to help patients more easily find clinical trials in which they could participate.
Improving communication among researchers and others has been one of Biden’s major goals.
“I’m going to stay involved in this effort as long as I’m alive,” Biden told Stat. “So I’m going to stay engaged. Exactly how, I don’t know yet.”