Vice President Joseph R. Biden said Tuesday that he would “develop prostate cancer or something” if he had a fundamental disagreement with President Obama and was forced to resign from his post.
At an event honoring former Vice President Walter Mondale, Mr. Biden recounted the conditions he placed on joining Mr. Obama’s ticket in 2008 and also made clear he would leave the administration if he encountered deep, substantive policy differences with the president.
“Two things: to be able to completely be level with you and argue with you if we disagree, privately,” Mr. Biden said of his 2008 conversations with Mr. Obama, in which the two men discussed the vice president’s role.
“And secondly, I want to be the last person in the room on every major decision, and I didn’t mean that figuratively, I meant that literally — the last person in the room,” he continued. “He’s president. He gets to make the decision, and unless there’s an overwhelming disagreement in principle, in which case I’d develop prostate cancer or something and leave, and he knew I meant that … I get to be the last person in the room. And that’s where I think I can serve best.”
Mr. Biden reportedly will decide this week whether to seek the White House in 2016.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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