Biden to decide on 2016 presidential bid soon: White House

Washington: US Vice President Joe Biden would soon announce whether he will contest the 2016 presidential election, the White House said today without indicating what his decision would be.

 "Law of physics requires that Biden would be making announcement about his decision pretty 'soon'," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.

 "He (Biden) has been considering this for some time, and I'm confident that once he has made a decision that he'll announce it, but he'll do so on his timeframe," Earnest said when pressed about it.

 "Primarily people understand that this is an intensely personal decision for anybody to make in terms of a candidacy for president of the United States, all of my colleagues here at the White House have certainly afforded the vice president all of the time and space that he needs to make that personal decision, and he'll make that on a timeframe of his choosing," he said.

 "I know there's plenty of speculation about the urgency of the political calendar, as the weather outside can attest, that we are now into the fall, and that's when more of the country's attention and more of the debate focuses on who the next president might be, but ultimately this will be a decision for Vice President to make," Earnest said.

 "I'm confident that as somebody who's participated in this process firsthand on a couple of occasions that he understands the timing pressure that he's under, but he'll make a decision when he's prepared to make it," the spokesman said.

 "Based on the fact that he has run for president twice before I think should be a clear indication that he believes that he's got something to offer to that debate and to offer to the country," he said.

 "I think that his strong performance as vice president has led a lot of people to think that he would be an influential candidate, an effective candidate in a presidential field. But ultimately, this is not the kind of decision that can be made for the vice president, the vice president himself needs to make this decision," he said.