Former Secretary of State John Kerry exploded on Sunday over a report suggesting that he was thinking about jumping into the 2020 Democrat primary race due to fears that socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) could ruin the party.
NBC News reported on Sunday that Kerry “was overheard Sunday on the phone at a Des Moines hotel explaining what he would have to do to enter the presidential race amid ‘the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party – down whole.’”
“Sitting in the lobby restaurant of the Renaissance Savery hotel, Kerry was overheard by an NBC News analyst saying ‘maybe I’m f—ing deluding myself here’ and explaining that in order to run, he’d have to step down from the board of Bank of America and give up his ability to make paid speeches,” NBC News reported. “Kerry said donors like venture capitalist Doug Hickey would have to ‘raise a couple of million,’ adding that such donors ‘now have the reality of Bernie.'”
Kerry quickly responded to the report on Twitter, writing: “As I told the reporter, I am absolutely not running for President. Any report otherwise is f***ing (or categorically) false. I’ve been proud to campaign with my good friend Joe Biden, who is going to win the nomination, beat Trump, and make an outstanding president.”
Kerry later deleted the tweet.
He deleted it. But it was beautiful while it lasted. pic.twitter.com/DNR1nDMTwQ
— andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) February 2, 2020
Republican National Committee (RNC) Communications Director Michael Ahrens noted that Kerry did not deny the remarks that he allegedly made in the conversation overheard by NBC News.
Note that he doesn't deny the conversation occurred.
— Michael Ahrens (@michaelahrens) February 2, 2020
Kerry later released tweeted the statement against without the use of profanity, writing: “As I told the reporter, I am absolutely not running for President. Any report otherwise is categorically false. I’ve been proud to campaign with my good friend Joe Biden, who is going to win the nomination, beat Trump, and make an outstanding president.”
As I told the reporter, I am absolutely not running for President. Any report otherwise is categorically false. I’ve been proud to campaign with my good friend Joe Biden, who is going to win the nomination, beat Trump, and make an outstanding president.
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) February 2, 2020
Kerry officially endorsed Biden in December, saying in a statement: “I believe Joe Biden is the president our country desperately needs right now, not because I’ve known Joe so long, but because I know Joe so well. I’ve never before seen the world more in need of someone who on Day 1 can begin the incredibly hard work of putting back together the world Donald Trump has smashed apart.”
“He’s the candidate with the wisdom and standing to fix what Trump has broken, to restore our place in the world, and improve the lives of working people here at home,” Kerry added.
In a December tweet, Kerry wrote: “Proud to head back to Iowa tomorrow to campaign with my friend Joe. I’m not endorsing Joe because I’ve known him for so long, but because I know him so well: he’ll be ready on day one to put back together the country and the world that Donald Trump has broken apart.”
Proud to head back to Iowa tomorrow to campaign with my friend Joe. I’m not endorsing Joe because I’ve known him for so long, but because I know him so well: he'll be ready on day one to put back together the country and the world that Donald Trump has broken apart.
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) December 5, 2019
The New York Times reported that in Kerry’s endorsement of Biden that Kerry touted Biden’s “work on foreign policy as vice president and as a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”
The fact that Kerry apparently felt that Biden’s foreign policy work may be his greatest strengths may not be a good sign for Biden as former Obama Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated that Biden has “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”