CNN’s Keilar: Biden Is Sounding Like a Candidate

TAPPER: “CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar is in Pittsburgh with the vice president. Brianna, Biden is perceived as more likable in the latest polls. That's not all, of course. He runs better than Clinton does in a hypothetical matchups against Republicans, but, of course, he's not a candidate yet, so no one is really attacking him, Brianna.” 
KEILAR: “Yes, That's right. He's not under that really glaring political spotlight yet, but he's certainly toying with reporters and getting a lot of encouragement from supporters here in Pittsburgh along this Labor Day parade route today. But when you look at this NBC/Marist poll, you see in Iowa that Trump -- Donald Trump beats Hillary Clinton, but Joe Biden beats Donald Trump, and then just generally speaking, in the two early contest states, Joe Biden does just better than Hillary Clinton. He certainly fielded a lot of questions today and had a lot of different answers to them about whether or not he's going to be running. Listen to this.” 
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BIDEN: “We have nobody to stand -- be us and the major -- no, no. You have got to talk to my wife about that. I have got to talk to my wife about that.” (Laughter)
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KEILAR: “And, Jake, I asked him after what was really a remarkable speech, pretty much because it really contrasted to his somber speech last week, where I think if someone was listening to him last week in Florida, they might have thought he's not going to run. But you listen just to this speech today without context, and it sounded very much like a candidate. I asked him, it sounds like you have a rationale for running, and he said I'm going to be running for part of this parade. Yes, as you mentioned, he did jog off, he was zigzagging along the parade route. Right now, this very small cadre of confidants and longtime friends of Biden are keeping a close hold around him as they work through whether or not he is going to be running. He has said that major factor in all of this is really if emotionally he and his family are there to take this on. It's of course just three months since he lost his son Beau Biden.”