Joe Biden doles out veepstakes advice to Donald Trump
Joe Biden knows a few things about the vice presidency, but he's passing on just one piece of advice to Donald Trump when it comes to his veep search: Choose someone you trust.
"I would pick someone you had confidence in," Biden said Friday in an interview with CBS News' Pittsburgh affiliate KDKA. "He's a businessman who has delegated. He may be able to do this, and find someone who has the competence to handle chunks of the responsibility and -- god forbid, if anything happens -- be able to be qualified to be a good president."
Beyond that, however, Biden said he doesn't have too many words of wisdom to share for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who beat out the last of his 16 GOP rivals Wednesday.
"He has beaten the odds. He's surprised everybody," Biden added. "I think we all make a mistake when we don't take him seriously."
The bombastic billionaire of the primary campaign may "actually get some really significant people around him on foreign policy, domestic policy," Biden said. And Trump could eventually start to piece together a policy agenda that "would make people think, 'well, maybe this guy can actually be president.'"
Of the Democratic primary race, Biden said he was "optimistic" about its outcome.
"I think we have two good candidates on my side," he said. "And I feel very optimistic."
Biden, who considered jumping into the Democratic primary last year, reflected on his own readiness to squeeze into the race at the last minute.
"I was straightforward. I had planned on entering the race," he said. "I was prepared and had the fundraising in line for real, but you know, life has a way of intervening."
Ultimately, Biden said, he just "wasn't ready" to launch a presidential bid.
"You should never run for president unless you can give every waking moment all your passion, all your commitment to the enterprise," said the vice president, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer nearly one year ago. Beau, he said, had continued "encouraging" him to run, but "at the time when I had to -- as they say -- fish or cut bait, I wasn't ready to do that."