Hillary Clinton Says Joe Biden 'Could Be A Good President'

— -- Hillary Clinton said Tuesday her friend and potential rival Vice President Joe Biden “could be a good president,” telling ABC’s David Muir “he deserves to test the waters.”

Asked by Muir if Biden would make a “good president,” she at first said he is a “great vice president,” adding she “like(s) Joe Biden a lot.”

When pressed by Muir if the vice president would make a good president, Clinton answered, “I think he could be a good president. There’s no doubt about that, but I think…we shouldn’t get into the politics of this back and forth because I don’t think it’s fair to him. He's testing the waters. He deserves to test the waters.”

In the interview, Clinton’s first national television interview with an evening news anchor since launching her campaign five months ago, the former secretary of state said, “If he gets into this election, there’ll be lots of time to talk about what he wants to do.”

Clinton added: “He deserves to kind of feel it. It's such an emotional decision. At the end of the day, this is a grueling, difficult journey that anybody who decides to run for president subjects themselves to and you have to be really ready and prepared.”

Clinton also noted Biden’s public comments on the topic saying she isn’t going to “comment on, on his campaign in waiting or whether there even is a campaign.”

Muir also asked Clinton if Biden jumped in who she thinks President Obama may back: his vice president or former secretary of state. Clinton answered: “I think the president will have to wait to decide who the candidates are.”

“I know he wants to be succeeded by a Democrat and I very much hope that happens because I think the country and the economy do better when we have a Democrat in the White House,” Clinton said.

Biden is considering jumping in the 2016 Democratic primary, but just last week acknowledged how difficult his son Beau’s death has been on the family saying, “The honest to God answer is I just don’t know.”