Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton swiped at Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday at a conference in Atlanta, Georgia, claiming she supported successful Navy SEAL mission that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, while a more cautious Biden opposed it.
Although media were not allowed to sit in the conference room, one observer told a local paper he believes Clinton was positioning herself on foreign policy to buttress a possible 2016 White House bid.
“I know she’s running for president now, because toward the end, she was asked about the Osama bin Laden raid. She took 25 minutes to answer,” Republican state Rep. Tom Taylor told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, according to The Washington Times. “Without turning the knife too deeply, she put it to Biden.”
Clinton reportedly brought up Biden’s opposition to the mission multiple times, Taylor continued, setting herself up as a more confident leader in contrast to Biden’s indecisiveness.
While Clinton has not formally announced her intent to run for president, many Democratic strategists she is a powerful contender nominee for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“She is basking in the glow of what many perceive as a successful run as secretary of state and as a former senator and what many believe to be the probable Democratic nominee for president of the United States,” Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf told the Washington Post. “When you have that combination of power, everybody wants to say, ‘Hello!’”