Former Vice President Joe Biden appears to be quickly cementing his status as a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2020.
New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo says Biden should throw his hat in the ring. But if he does, he would have a long, uphill battle to catch front-runner Beto O’Rourke.
LoBiondo, who often talks about relationships with President Trump, said he’s been catching up with Trump on the phone the past few weeks and doesn’t understand the president’s concerns about Biden.
LoBiondo says Biden’s relationship with Trump is “much more of a common denominator” than O’Rourke’s strong ties to El Paso.
“The fact that I’m friends with President Trump doesn’t mean I’m going to vote for him or will be friendly toward him,” LoBiondo told CNN’s Paula Reid. “That’s just not my way.”
CNN’s Paula Reid interviewed LoBiondo on Wednesday on “New Day.”
The Arizona Republican is from an affluent district outside of Las Vegas, but LoBiondo insists that doesn’t mean he’s “someone who has a problem with poor people.”
“I don’t view him as someone that is going to, I don’t want to say “screw” over his friends or that type of thing,” LoBiondo said of O’Rourke. “We don’t have necessarily a bunch of angry liberals in El Paso. We have an issue where a significant amount of the residents — some of them voted Republican.”
LoBiondo says that if the mainstream media doesn’t start to learn to stop treating Republican leaders “with kid gloves,” then Republican voters might ignore it and start voting for Trump.