Former Secretary of State and U.S. Senator John Kerry endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president Thursday, putting to bed speculation that he may launch his own bid for the White House.
“I believe Joe Biden is the President our country desperately needs right now, not because I’ve known Joe so long, but because I know Joe so well,” Kerry, who lost to President George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election, said in a statement put out by the Biden campaign. “I’ve never before seen the world more in need of someone who on day one can begin the incredibly hard work of putting back together the world Donald Trump has smashed apart.”
“Joe will defeat Donald Trump next November,” he added. “He’s the candidate with the wisdom and standing to fix what Trump has broken, to restore our place in the world, and improve the lives of working people here at home.”
Kerry will join the former vice president’s “No Malarkey” bus tour in Iowa on Friday and campaign with him again in New Hampshire on Sunday.
In April, Kerry said he was thinking about another White House run, but wanted to see whether Biden was going to jump into the race. The former vice president ultimately did so the following month.
“I want to see what Joe is going to do,” he told the New York Times at the time.
Thursday’s endorsement comes after Kerry unveiled “World War Zero,” a star-studded coalition of world leaders and Hollywood celebrities dedicated to advocating for solutions to climate change. The forthcoming organization’s website states its main goal is to mobilize resources to combat global warming akin to how the Western allies did in World War II.