Biden’s Office: No, He Was Not Offered Secretary of State!

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Joe Biden’s office just put out this statement, doing some quick messaging/damage-control on Jill Biden’s declaration today on the Oprah Winfrey show about how Joe was offered either the Vice Presidency or Secretary of State:

“Like anyone who followed the presidential campaign this summer, Dr. Jill Biden knew there was a chance that President-elect Obama might ask her husband to serve in some capacity and that, given his background, the positions of Vice President and Secretary of State were possibilities. Dr. Biden’s point to Oprah today was that being Vice President would be a better fit for their family because they would get to see him more and get to participate in serving more. To be clear, President-elect Obama offered Vice President-elect Biden one job only — to be his running mate. And the Vice President-elect was thrilled to accept the offer.”

This sort of statement does seem curious. As ABC News pointed out, Joe Biden himself seemed to imply in a pre-election interview with the New Yorker that he was offered either of the two posts, a statement that hardly seemed controversial before the election — and before Hillary Clinton’s name was thrown into the mix for State.

Hmmm…

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