Joe Biden says he could have won the 2016 presidential election

Former Vice President Joe Biden said he regrets not running for president in 2016 and he thinks he could have won the election if he had followed through with his plan to run.

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"I had planned on running for president, and although it would have been a very difficult primary, I think I could have won," Biden said during a speech Friday at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. "I don't know, maybe not. But I thought I could have won. […] I had a lot of data, and I was fairly confident that if I were the Democratic Party's nominee, I had a better than even chance of being president ... Do I regret not being president? Yes."

Biden, 73, said he believes he was “the best qualified” for the position.

But Biden said he doesn't regret the time that he spent with his son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015. Being on the campaign trail would have taken away from that.

In September 2016, Biden revealed that he had planned on running for president, but after his son was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, part of his "soul was gone."

“No man or woman should run unless they are capable of giving every ounce,” Biden said. “I wasn’t healthy enough to pour my whole heart and soul into the effort.”

Cox Media Group