Hillary Clinton: I'm not preparing for Joe Biden
Hillary Clinton said she and her team are not taking steps to prepare for a possible late entry into the Democratic presidential primary by Vice President Joe Biden.
"This is such a personal decision and the vice president has to sort this out," Clinton said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." "He's been so open in talking about how difficult this time is for him and his family and he's obviously considering what he wants to do including whether he wants to run."
"I just have the greatest respect and affection for him and I think everybody just ought to give him the space to decide what's best for his family," she added.
Biden met with political advisers Monday at his residence in Washington, D.C. as part of his ongoing conversation with family, friends and staff over whether to jump into the 2016 presidential race.
Over the last few days, some Democratic donors have also calls for the vice president to mount a challenge to Clinton.
In a letter circulated Friday signed by nearly 50 prominent party fundraisers, potential donors pledged their support for Biden, calling him "an authentic leader" who has had "spectacular success" with President Obama.
Clinton also addressed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, who is already running against her for the Democratic nomination and has surged ahead of her in some polls of Iowa and New Hampshire voters.
Sanders has avoided criticizing Clinton in favor of focusing on his own policies, and on Sunday Clinton suggested she will treat him the same way.
"I want this to be about ideas and about policies. I know Bernie, I respect his enthusiastic and intense advocacy of his ideas, that's what I want this campaign to be about. And I hope people who support me respect that," she said. "Obviously am running because I think it's better for the country if a Democrat who has the kind of approaches and values that my husband had and Barack Obama has follows this presidency."
But she had plenty of criticism for Republican front runner Donald Trump, who recently stood by while a person asking him questions at a town hall said President Obama was a Muslim and not American.
"He is spewing a level of paranoia and prejudice against all kinds of people. And when you light those fires, you better recognize that they can get out of control. And he should start dampening them down and putting them out," she said. "He wants to talk about what he would do as president, that's obviously fair game, but to play into some of the worst impulses that people have these days that are really being it up by the Internet and other conspiracy-minded theories is just irresponsible, it's appalling."
She pointed out that 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain stood up to someone who made a similar remark in one of his events.
But she did tell moderator John Dickerson that politicians shouldn't necessarily be on the hook for everything their supporters say.
"We all have supporters who may say things that we don't agree with. But when you are at an event and someone stands up and says something like that in front of you, then I do think you have a responsibility to respond," she said.