Vice President Joe Biden has reportedly confided to a group of Democrats that he's trying to figure out if he's got the "emotional fuel" to run for president.
The 72-year-old Biden, whose son Beau died from brain cancer in May, said he would have to commit his "heart" and "soul" to a White House run – but both are "pretty well banged up,"
CNN reports.
The call was supposed to have been closed to the media,
The Hill reports.
"If I were to announce to run I have to be able to commit to all of you that I would be able to give it my whole heart and my whole soul and right now, both are pretty well banged up," Biden told Democratic National Committee members on a conference call Wednesday.
Biden said ultimately, he's got to decide if he has the "emotional fuel" in him, CNN reports.
The vice president also said he's making his decisions based on conversations with his family members.
"I'm not trying to skirt your question," he said, The Hill reports. "That's the truth of the matter, but believe me, I've given this a lot of thought and dealing internally with the family on how we do this."
Even if he answers all his own questions — and those of his family — Biden has to consider whether he can beat Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, CNN notes.
"I just want the vice president to decide to do what's right for him and his family," Clinton told reporters Wednesday after a campaign event in Ankeny, Iowa, calling Biden a "friend," CNN reports.
But one analyst tells CNN Biden's options are limited.
"There really isn't a lane [for Biden] unless Hillary Clinton has legal difficulties in relation to her email situation," Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute for Politics at Saint Anselm College, tells CNN.
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