WASHINGTON — A new book asserts the idea of replacing Vice President Joe Biden with Hillary Rodham Clinton was floated in President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, but the former White House chief of staff denies it.
"Not for a moment was there a serious discussion" of dumping Biden for Clinton, former White House chief of staff Bill Daley said in a nationally broadcast interview, suggesting no one took this proposition directly to Obama.
In their new book Double Down — Game Change 2012, authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann report that high-ranking Obama aides weighed recommending he replace Biden with Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time
Daley confirmed in a CBS This Morning interview Friday that the idea "was looked at" by Obama aides.
"But it was never seriously looked at in the sense that there was a belief that it ought to be done or needed to be done," he said. " ... And the president, in my opinion, I believe then and I do now, not for a moment would he have ever considered that."