WASHINGTON — Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a longtime friend of the Clinton family, thinks the former Secretary of State will decide whether she’ll run for president in 60 days.
“She’s got to make that decision and she’s got to spend the next 60 days making that decision … I’m really hoping she runs, but I’m leaving that decision to her,” McAuliffe told U.S. News & World Report on Thursday.
The Virginia governor’s projection means Clinton will have made up her mind by mid-January 2015, which matches the time frame Clinton said she plans to make her widely anticipated decision.
“I am going to be making a decision around, probably after the first of the year about whether I am going to run again,” she told a Mexican audience in early September.
When asked whether his close ties to Clinton would land him the VP spot, McAuliffe said he’s “just happy to support her.”
The former chairman of Clinton’s failed 2008 campaign isn’t the only one anticipating her announcement. John Podesta, Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff and current Obama adviser, told PBS’ Al Hunt on Friday that he will join Hillary’s campaign if she asks.
“She hasn’t made a decision, so she has structured no campaign,” he said. “If she runs, as I hope she will, I’ll do whatever she’d ask me to do.”
