Report: Joe Biden Planted Leak About Son's Dying Wish for 2016

Vice President Joe Biden himself planted the leak about his dying son Beau pleading with him to run for president in 2016, Politico reported Tuesday, citing multiple sources.

Beau Biden’s dying wish was laid out in heart-rending detail in a New York Times column by Maureen Dowd in August, kicking the speculation about another Joe Biden White House run into high gear.

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“Calculation sort of sounds crass, but I guess that’s what it is,” a person who has spoken to Biden running for president told Politico. “The head is further down the road than the heart is.”

From Politico:

According to multiple sources, it was Biden himself who talked to her [Dowd], painting a tragic portrait of a dying son, Beau’s face partially paralyzed, sitting his father down and trying to make him promise to run for president because "the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.”

It was no coincidence that the preliminary pieces around a prospective campaign started moving right after that column. People read Dowd and started reaching out, those around the vice president would say by way of defensive explanation. He was just answering the phone and listening.

But in truth, Biden had effectively placed an ad in The New York Times, asking them to call.

Read the full report here.