Elizabeth Warren coy on meeting with Joe Biden
The meeting last month between Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vice President Joe Biden sparked a series of speculative questions about the 2016 election: Was Biden seeking Warren's support for a potential presidential bid? Did he offer her the vice presidential spot on a ticket?
In a "Political Happy Hour" at Suffolk University on Wednesday, however, Warren downplayed the political significance of her rendezvous with Biden.
"He actually called me twice. Called me once, called me twice, and invited me down," she recalled. "We had lunch. We talked about policy. We talked about what's happening to America's middle class... It was a good, long, rambly policy conversation."
"I meet with anybody who wants to talk about policy," she added. "I have met with Secretary [Hillary] Clinton... of course, with [Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders. With Vice President Biden and with [former Maryland Gov.] Martin O'Malley. So, this is important stuff. It's a lot more important than just politics. We have to make change. America's great middle class is in real trouble."
When Warren was asked whether there was any talk of a Biden-Warren ticket in 2016, she demurred.
"It was a long conversation," she said.
Pressed on whether she'd finish the six-year Senate term to which she was elected in 2012, Warren replied, "So, I love my job. I truly love this job. It's all I'm thinking about. You just can't put a different thought in my head."
But when the moderator noted that she pledged to serve out her entire term in 2013, Warren insisted, "Nothing has changed any of my thinking around this."
Clinton remains the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2016, but the controversy over her private email server has sown worries among some Democrats that the party needs a contingency plan if Clinton falters.
Biden has been meeting with political advisers and sounding out prominent Democrats about a 2016 bid. He's expected to make a decision sometime this month.