Joe meets Bernie

Joe Biden meets with Bernie Sanders

By Nick Gass

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders met with Vice President Joe Biden at his Naval Observatory residence for an hour Thursday, discussing issues related to campaign finance reform and education, according to a statement released through the Vermont senator's campaign.

The meeting comes more than a week after Biden announced that he would not seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Under the leadership of President Obama and Vice President Biden, this country has come a long way economically since President Bush left office and we were losing 800,000 jobs every month and the world economy was on the brink of financial collapse,” Sanders said in a statement released through his campaign. “Nevertheless ... we still have a long way to go to create the kind of economy that works for all Americans and not just the top 1 percent.

“I look forward to working with President Obama and Vice President Biden to tackle some to the major issues facing our country,” he said.

Biden previously praised Sanders, then a potential primary opponent, in September at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser in Miami.

“I am not a populist. But Bernie Sanders, he’s doing a helluva job,” Biden remarked, leaving at some donors in Miami scratching their heads.

In his Rose Garden remarks announcing that he would forgo a third campaign for the White House last Wednesday, Biden pledged to stay involved in the election. "While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent," he said.

"I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation," the vice president said.