US: Vice President Biden will not run for president

US Vice President Joe Biden says he decided not to enter the US presidential race after concluding he couldn’t win the White House in 2016. "I'll be very blunt. If I thought we could’ve put together the campaign that our supporters deserve and our contributors deserved, I would’ve gone ahead and done it," Biden said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS's "60 Minutes."

Biden said it took a long time for his family to decide if he should run after the death of his son, Beau, who died from brain cancer in May. Biden’s wife, Jill, said she was disappointed her husband decided not to seek the Democratic nomination. “I believed he would’ve been the best president,” she said. During a speech on Wednesday at the White House, the 72-year-old Biden announced he wouldn’t run for president while standing next to his wife and US President Barack Obama.

At the White House speech, the vice president also expressed disappointment over partisan bickering in Washington politics. “We have to end the divisive partisan politics that is ripping this country apart…it’s mean spirited, its pity and it’s gone on for much too long,” he lamented. He also warned that the growing wealth and income inequality in the United States is a fundamental threat to the social stability and democratic system of the country. “We cannot sustain the current levels of inequality that exists in this country.” “I believe the huge sums of unlimited and often secret money pouring into our politics is a fundamental threat to our democracy and I really mean that,” Biden said.