Is Biden Going to Poach Earnest for Campaign? WH Spokesman Says Veep 'Exceeded the Hype' in Office

If Vice President Joe Biden decides to run for the White House, he could be taking press secretary Josh Earnest with him.

Earnest didn’t deny reports this morning that he’s thinking of bailing the Obama administration to go work on a Biden campaign.

“Joe Biden has served this administration admirably. The president has often described choosing Joe Biden to be his running mate as the smartest decision he has ever made in politics,” Earnest told CNN.

“And despite all of that hype, Vice President Biden has actually exceeded that hype. He is somebody who has a strong track record of fighting for the middle class. That’s exactly what he’s done as vice president. For decades when he was in the Congress he built important foreign policy relationships around the globe and has advanced the interests of the United States. He has used those relationships as vice president of the United States to continue it to advance our interest.”

Earnest added that “there is no denying that Vice President Biden has been a terrific vice president, but ultimately he has his own personal decision to make about whether or not he wants to run for the presidency of the United States.”

“And I think that there are a lot of people in Washington, D.C., certainly a lot of Democrats, that if he made that decision that they would be honored to work with him,” he said.

“But the fact is, we’ve got some great candidates on the Democratic side already, and — but ultimately each of the candidates will have to make up their own mind about whether or not they want to be a candidate.”

Another former member of the administration, President Obama’s former special adviser on green jobs Van Jones, told CNN on Sunday that “there’s not” a hunger for Biden to join the race within the Democratic Party.

“But listen, he is incredibly respected. He’s a beloved figure in our party. But the reality is he’s not so different from Hillary Clinton from the point of view of the rising energy in the party. The Clinton party was a very pro-incarceration party, anti-regulation for Wall Street, and being on triangulation,” Jones said.

“The new party, the Elizabeth Warren wing, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter, less incarceration, more regulation, and they hate the triangulation, they want authenticity. So, he checks the authenticity box but no other box in our party — there’s just no hunger — they love him. There’s no hunger for him.”