Biden ally expects decision ‘relatively soon’

Vice President Biden will decide whether to enter the 2016 presidential race soon, and if he runs, he will shake up the race, one of his top supporters said Monday.

“He does have the room to make a decision that is right for him and his family,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said on CNN. “It is getting late in the fall, and I do think we’ll get an answer relatively soon.”

{mosads}A new CNN poll suggests Democrats’ appetite for a Biden candidacy is waning following last week’s first Democratic primary debate, in which front-runner Hillary Clinton gave a strong performance. Biden sat out the debate as he contemplates a bid.

Forty-seven percent of Democrats said they want the vice president to run, down from 53 percent in August. 

Coons, who occupies Biden’s old Senate seat, said the vice president’s authenticity and decades of experience in public service would make him a formidable candidate if he decides to run. 

“I know that if Joe Biden had been on that debate stage, if he gets into this race, it’ll change all of the numbers that we just saw on the poll,” Coons said. 

Biden’s supporters in recent days have been increasingly vocal in pushing back against the notion the vice president’s window to enter the race has closed.

A top adviser to Biden, former Sen. Ted Kaufman, sent a letter to supporters last week that outlined the themes of Biden’s potential campaign and indicated his decision is coming soon. A source close to Biden told CBS News he won’t be “bullied” by outside pressure from Clinton’s campaign and other Democrats about making a decision. 

Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, has publicly urged Biden to declare his intentions. 

“It’s time he make that decision,” he said last week on MSNBC.