Joe Biden ‘fairly confident’ he would’ve beaten Trump if he ran for the presidency

Former Vice President Joe Biden not only regrets not running for president — he’s “fairly confident” he could have beaten Donald Trump.

In an appearance at Colgate University on Friday, the university’s president, Brian W. Casey, asked Biden, “Did you ever think, what if? Any regrets that you didn’t run?”

“I had planned on running for president and although it would have been a very difficult primary, I think I could have won,” he responded. “I don’t know, maybe not. But I thought I could have won.”

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“I had a lot of data and I was fairly confident that if I were the Democratic Party‘s nominee, I had a better than even chance of being president,” he went on. “But do I regret not being president? Yes. I was the best qualified.”

Biden has been open about his desire for the presidency since he won a Senate seat in 1972. However, the death of his son, Beau Biden, in May 2015 at the age of 46 after a battle with cancer, kept him from running in 2016.

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When asked about running, Biden told Good Morning America in May 2016, “No one should ever seek the presidency unless they’re able to devote their whole heart and soul and passion into just doing that. And, Beau was my soul. I just wasn’t ready to be able to do that. But, so, my one regret is my Beau’s not here. I don’t have any other regrets.”

Biden later hinted to reporters that he might run for president in 2020. He later, however, clarified to Stephen Colbert, “I don’t plan on running again, but to say you know what’s going to happen in four years is just not rational.”