Agencies - Abu Dhabi
Former US Vice President Joe Biden, who announced his candidacy for the presidential election, said he had asked former President Barack Obama not to back his candidacy by arguing that Democrats should win their party's bid.
Ahead of Biden's statement, a source familiar with Obama's handling of things said it was too early and "unlikely" that the former US president would support a candidate, and that sharp debates during the 2008 presidential primaries made him a better candidate.
"I asked (former) President Obama not to support (my nomination)," Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, adding that "the winner of the party's nomination must take his victory by the wall."
Biden wrote in a chant with a three-and-a-half-minute video that he would not stand by while President Donald Trump "radically changed the character of this nation."
"The values of this nation ... our position in the world ... and our democracy ... and everything that made America America is at stake, and that's why I'm announcing my candidacy for the post of president of the United States today."
Biden's candidacy has raised the number of candidates seeking to win the Democratic nomination in the presidential election in 2020 to 20 candidates.
Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Camala Harris, and a number of current and former lawmakers and former Obama administration secretary Julian Castro have already run.
The source close to Obama said the latter was "excited" about the great capabilities of the Democratic Party candidates and considered it better to "let the candidates put their views on the voters."
Even before his official announcement, Biden issues most of the polls of Democratic voters.
The Clear-Politex poll showed 29.3 percent, followed by independent Senator Bernie Sanders at 23 percent.
Asked what he thought was the Democratic Democratic Party's best choice for Trump in the 2020 election, Biden said, "The Democrats will decide on that."
Obama and Biden had forged a "privileged relationship" during an eight-year presidential term and remained close, according to Obama's spokeswoman Katie Hill.
Before his term ended, Obama surprised Biden in January 12017 by imitating the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.