Biden: Buttigieg 'Reminds Me of My Son Beau'

After receiving the endorsement from Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, 77, praised his former opponent, telling supporters Buttigieg remains him of his late son Beau.

"I don't think I've ever done this before, but he reminds me of my son Beau," Biden said.

"That may not mean much to most people, but to me, it's the highest compliment I can give any man or woman."

Beau died in 2015 from brain cancer, which might have been the reason the former vice president did not enter the presidential race after the conclusion of former President Barack Obama's second term. Biden's other son, Hunter, was the one embroiled in the Burisma and Ukraine corruption controversy.

"I look over at Pete during the debates and I think, you know, that's a Beau," Biden said. "Because he has such enormous character, such intellectual capacity, and such a commitment to other people.

"And, folks, I can't tell you how much it means to me that he would step up and endorse me. He didn't even tell me when we spoke, he would endorse me. But I just can't tell you how much I appreciate it."

Buttigieg, 38, withdrew from the Democratic presidential primary Sunday night and sources say Biden was ready to offer him a position in his prospective administration.

"I'm delighted to endorse and support Joe Biden," Buttigieg said outside a Dallas, Texas, restaurant. "He is somebody of such extraordinary grace and kindness and empathy."

The teaming up comes on the eve of crucial Super Tuesday voting as moderate Democrats rallied around the former vice president to strengthen his challenge to front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Later on Monday, Biden was also set to receive the endorsement of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., at a Dallas rally when she announces the suspension of her presidential campaign, a Klobuchar aide said.

Former U.S. Representative Beto O'Rourke, another former candidate for the Democratic nomination, was also expected to endorse Biden, The New York Times reported.

Biden is fresh off a resounding victory in Saturday's South Carolina primary and is aiming for a strong showing on Super Tuesday against Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, who many centrist Democrats fear cannot win against Republican President Donald Trump in November.

But Biden still faces a challenge from billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg among voters hoping the party will nominate a moderate to face Trump.

Bloomberg, a late entrant to the race, will make his ballot-box debut when 14 states vote on Super Tuesday. He is betting the $500 million of his own money he has poured into his campaign will allow him to make up for not competing in the first nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina.

He said Monday the most likely scenario was that no Democratic candidate would win a majority of delegates and that picking the nominee could come down to "horse trading" at the Democratic convention in Milwaukee in July.

Asked at a Fox News town hall if a contested convention lay in his path to the nomination, Bloomberg said: "That is the way that it would work I would guess."

The Super Tuesday contests offer the biggest one-day haul of the 1,991 delegates needed to win the party's nomination at its national convention in July, with about 1,357 delegates, or nearly one-third of the total number, up for grabs.

Fourteen states – California, Texas, Virginia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Vermont, Colorado, Utah, North Carolina and Maine – as well as American Samoa and Democrats living abroad cast ballots on Tuesday. (The primary for expatriate Americans is scheduled to run through March 10.)

Five candidates - Biden, Bloomberg, Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii - remain in the running for the Democratic nomination, down from more than 20 earlier in the campaign.

Bloomberg and Biden have emerged as the main contenders for the votes of moderate Democrats, while Sanders is the progressive front-runner nationally, eclipsing Warren.

Information from Reuters was used in this report.