Former Vice President Joe Biden is saying he will give the 2020 presidential race "a shot," The Hill reported Tuesday.
Quoting an unnamed senior Democrat lawmaker, Biden tipped his hand in a "matter-of-factly" phone call within the past week, The Hill reported.
"I'm giving it a shot," he told the lawmaker.
In the brief phone call, Biden asked if he could bounce some campaign strategy ideas off the lawmaker and invited the lawmaker to sit down with him in the near future, The Hill reported.
Biden also sought the lawmaker's support, which was not given — and Biden responded there was no harm if they keep talking, The Hill reported.
The former VP did not share any details about when or where he planned to make his formal announcement, the lawmaker told The Hill.
Biden spokesman Bill Russo pushed back on the idea Biden's entry in the race is sure thing, telling The Hill: "He has not made a final decision. No change."
But Biden himself sounds pretty sure.
"I appreciate the energy you all showed when I got up here," Biden told the International Association of Fire Fighters' annual conference in Washington, D.C., which erupted in chants of "Run, Joe, run."
"Save it a little longer, I may need it in a few weeks. Be careful what you wish for."
According to The Hill, Senate and House sources said Biden has been reaching out to allies on Capitol Hill with increasing frequency in recent weeks. And Democrats said he has talked about how he could win in the primary, making the case that a growing Democratic field would work in his favor, and his blue-collar roots make him the strongest candidate to beat Trump.
"He's basically in. He's just running the traps, as he says," one source told The Hill.
Despite the swarm of senators already in the race — Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. — one unnamed Democrat senator told The Hill he is hoping Biden piles on.
"I love him," the senator told The Hill, "and think he's got a unique ability to connect with Americans in the Rust Belt who feel left behind by government."
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