In an interview at the Capitol on December 6, Joe Biden announced plans to run for President in 2020. When reporters asked for more details, Biden said only, “I am not committed to anything. I learned a long time ago, fate has a strange way of intervening.”
Biden has been vocal about his contempt for President-elect Donald Trump, and a possible Trump-Biden race would have no shortage of verbal fireworks. Biden’s outspoken, unfiltered style has occasionally been a headache for President Obama and given his political enemies ammunition to mock him. But “Uncle Joe” is a beloved figure for many Democrats, and his irreverent attitude has spawned numerous memes online.
Joe Biden was a Senator from Delaware from 1972 to 2009, and has been the Vice-President of the United States since then. He sought the Presidency unsuccessfully in 1998, when his campaign was derailed by accusations of plagiarism, and 2008, when he was unable to overcome his future running mate Barack Obama. He was considered a possible dark horse in 2016 but declined to run against Hillary Clinton.
Biden is currently 74; if he were to run for President at the age of 78 in 2020, he would easily be the oldest person ever to seek the office. For comparison, Ronald Reagan was 69 in 1980 and John McCain was 72 in 2008.