“Save it a little longer, I may need it in a few weeks,” Biden told members of the International Association of Fire Fighters, who also waved black-and-gold signs with the same plea, adding with a grin: “Be careful what you wish for.”
But in his remarks to the group, Biden suggested he was ready to fulfill their wish. After an introduction from his wife, Jill; praise from Harold Schaitberger, the head of the firefighters’ union; and a video of Biden hailing organized labor that ended with a flashing “Run Joe Run” graphic, Biden praised unions for building the country’s middle class.
He also veered far from discussing issues of overtime and collective bargaining, sounding out themes about American renewal that could form the basis of a bid for the Democratic nomination.
“In America everybody gets a shot,” Biden said. “That’s what the next president of the United States needs to understand and that’s what I don’t think this current president understands at all.”
He scorned President Donald Trump’s new budget proposal, unveiled Monday, which he said would cut Medicare and Medicaid “because of a tax cut for the superwealthy that created a deficit of $1.9 trillion and now they got to go make somebody pay for it.”
Speaking to a union with a politically mixed membership, Biden also expressed unease with his own party’s drift to the left and the deep polarization gripping the country.
He lamented that a “mean pettiness has overtaken our politics” and said “we seem to be at each other’s throats” before again revealing angst at his party’s contempt for his instincts toward conciliation.
“I get criticized for saying anything nice about a Republican,” Biden said.
The former vice president, who was subdued for much of his speech, raised his voice as he neared the end of his remarks and implored the firefighters, who are in the capital for their own annual legislative conference, to remain optimistic about the country’s future.
“There is no reason,” Biden said,” “why we can’t own the 21st century. And the rest of the world needs us to lead.”
“It is time,” he continued, his voice nearing a shout, “to get up and remember who the hell we are.”
Biden repeatedly brought the heavily male audience to its feet, and earned perhaps his loudest applause as he recalled how the bravery that firefighters showed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks sent a resounding message to the world.
“You can knock us down but you can never beat us,” Biden proclaimed, bellowing, “Never, never, never beat us!”
For all the emotion in the room, it also felt familiar. The last time Biden considered a presidential run, in 2015, he went to a Labor Day rally and parade in Pittsburgh, where union activists also chanted “Run Joe Run!” at him. The next month he said he would not run.
But Biden’s Tuesday appearance before the firefighters, long among his closest labor allies, comes as he and his top advisers insist that this time is different, that the former vice president is poised to enter the 2020 race next month.
Before leaving last week for a brief vacation in St. Croix, Biden telephoned and met with a number of Democratic officials, signaling to them that he was preparing to run.
“He was leaning toward it,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who, along with the two other members of Biden’s home-state congressional delegation, had lunch with the former vice president at his office at the foot of Capitol Hill. “Everything necessary to lay the groundwork for a successful campaign is underway.”
Coons said Biden used the lunch to ask the lawmakers detailed questions “on a wide range of topics,” including the political dynamics in various states, the mood in the Senate caucus and how to organize robust digital, grassroots and fundraising efforts.
Yet even as Biden and one of his principal advisers, Steve Ricchetti, assure Democratic officials that he is all but certain to run, doubts persist that he will enter the race.
For months, Biden has sped past his own self-imposed deadlines about deciding whether to mount what would be his third White House bid. Speaking last month at the University of Delaware, he bluntly expressed his concerns about running, ruminating on the difficulty it could present to his family — Biden is particularly concerned about coverage of his son, Hunter, who is emerging from a divorce — and wondering if pursuing the nomination would be “a fool’s errand.”
Biden’s identity as a 76-year-old white moderate in a party that is increasingly young, progressive and diverse has left many Democrats, including his admirers, skeptical about his prospects.
But his would-be campaign was heartened over the weekend to see that, in a new Des Moines Register-CNN poll, 64 percent of Iowa Democratic caucusgoers indicated that they thought Biden should get in the race, while just 31 percent indicated that they thought his time has passed and he should not run.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.