Biden visit to Florida has media on his heels

Vice President Joe Biden talks to students and guests Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, at Miami Dade College in Miami. Vice President Biden traveled to Florida to support Senate Democrats and the administration's education agenda.
Vice President Joe Biden talks to students and guests Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, at Miami Dade College in Miami. Vice President Biden traveled to Florida to support Senate Democrats and the administration's education agenda.

MIAMI -- Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Florida to support Senate Democrats and the administration's education agenda Wednesday, a trip watched closely for any hint that he'll announce he's entering the 2016 presidential race.

Biden attended a fundraiser Wednesday night for the Senate Democrats after a speech at Miami Dade College in which he talked about the courage it takes for students to return to community college after being out of school for years. "People who aren't willing to risk failing never succeed," he said.

Also, Biden said he and President Barack Obama had sought to address the economic disparities between the wealthy and the poor, and that the nation is on the verge of an "economic renaissance." He spoke about the Obama administration's plan to provide two years of free community college to students.

Noting the throng of reporters following him, Biden joked: "Their interest in community college has impressed me greatly." He later brushed off reporters' questions about whether he would enter the presidential race.

At the fundraiser, Biden spoke about the need to elect more Democrats to the Senate, said two donors who attended the event. The donors said the vice president also offered a lengthy defense of the administration's nuclear-arms deal with Iran.

Interest in a Biden presidential bid has intensified in recent weeks amid scrutiny of presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's use of a private email account and server while she was secretary of state.

"There's a malaise inside the race right now with Clinton," said Tony Bisagnano, an Iowa state senator who supported Biden's campaign in 2008 and wants him to run again. "People I know who are supporting her are not necessarily withdrawing, but are unenthusiastic."

But he cautioned: "We're getting close to where it's going to be a tough race if he waits much longer."

A Democrat familiar with Biden's private conversations about entering the race said recent discussions have focused on whether the vice president's family would be up to a presidential campaign only months after the death of Biden's son, Beau.

Biden's trip to Florida, one of the nation's presidential-election swing states, is to include meetings with Jewish leaders today. Those leaders are skeptical of Obama's nuclear-arms deal with Iran.

At the college, Biden toured a biotechnology laboratory, where a student asked if he wanted to join in her work. "I'm going to watch," Biden said, looking at the reporters around him, "I can see the press headline: 'Biden screws up experiment.'"

Tonight, Biden is to talk up the Iran deal during an address to Jewish leaders in Atlanta. He then is to head to Pittsburgh to march Monday in a Labor Day parade with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Trumka met privately with the vice president last week and said "the field is still wide open" if Biden decides to enter the presidential race.

Biden has held private discussions with family members and longtime aides at his Delaware home, and met at a Naval Observatory with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, R-Mass., as he weighs entering the race.

"I know he's still going through a lot of pain and suffering over the loss of his son," said Steve Shurtleff, a New Hampshire House Democratic leader who backed Biden's unsuccessful 2008 presidential primary campaign. "His brain may be telling him one thing, but his heart may be telling him another thing."

Biden is expected to make his decision within a month. Democrats say that if he runs, he needs to join the field before the first televised debate, on Oct. 13. Currently the Democratic primary field includes Clinton; U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Information for this article was contributed by Josh Lederman of The Associated Press.

A Section on 09/03/2015

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