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Oh Lord, Biden replied.

They talked for a moment about why Biden hadnt run. Duggan was regretful. Biden was emotional.

I want to be the first person to sign up for the 2020 campaign, Duggan told him, because this never would have happened if you were the candidate.

Biden, quiet, deflected.

Michigan wound up going to Trump by 10,704 votes.

Biden walked into the next room to call Obama. That conversation didnt last long. There wasnt much to say.

Later, Obama phoned Clinton. He was just as level with her as hed been with everyone else: Democrats couldnt fight the results. She resisted. He then called John Podesta, Clintons campaign chair and his own former senior adviser, catching him after he gave a speech at the Javits Center, trying to buy time. Now Podesta was riding back to Clintons hotel in a van full of depressed campaign staffers. Youve got to make her concede, Obama told him.

The president was looking at the numbers as he spoke. She cant come back. Dont fight it anymore. Podesta listened, finally agreeing.

I feel like I really let you down, Mr. President, he said. I feel like I really let her down.

Read: Hillary Clinton says she was right all along

While they were speaking, Clintons closest aide, Huma Abedin, called another aide, Jennifer Palmieri, who was sitting in the van next to Podesta. Well, Abedin said. She did it. Clinton had called Trump to concede. She didnt call Obama back that night to tell him she had done so.

After Obama himself phoned Trump to congratulate him, he called two of his closest aides, his deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, and his speechwriter Cody Keenan, well into a bottle of whiskey at Keenans apartment, to talk through what he was going to say in the Rose Garden in the morning. I have to do this the right way, he insisted. He dictated most of the text. Do you want to put any reassurance in there for our allies around the world? Rhodes asked. I cant give it to them, Obama answered. They left that part out.

The next few days were full of tears and West Wing moments: Obama saying how proud he was of everyone and urging people to run through the tape and stay focused on their work. No one really could. Aides who used to spend their days being snarky and tough had tears streaming down their faces. On the morning after the election, they waited for Clinton to finally give her concession speech up in New York. Then Obama came out into the Rose Garden, Biden at his side, saying something about how the sun would rise tomorrow. Thered never been so many staff gathered there. They did not look as if they believed the sun would rise tomorrow. They could barely see it then.

Im not running, Biden was insisting to people in the spring of 2017.

But then to others hed say, If Im walking, Im running.

Read this article:
How Joe Biden Really Decided to Run for President - The Atlantic