Vice President Joe Biden said that if she is elected, he will choose not to serve in a Hillary Clinton administration, dedicating his time instead to cancer research -- and will do that for "as long as I’m alive."

In an extensive piece published in the medical publication STAT, Biden revealed that although he was asked by Clinton to continue working in an administrative capacity, he has ruled out the possibility altogether:

Biden said he would want to work closely with a Clinton administration to build on the “cancer moonshot” he launched earlier this year and to help “coordinate” the initiative. But he dismissed the possibility that Clinton’s recent appeal for him to continue working on the effort meant he would serve in government.

[...]“I’m not going to stay on in the administration,”

“What Hillary talked about is, as I understood it, me being able to have the same authority over elements of her administration from the outside that I have now from the inside, to be able to coordinate those efforts.” Biden said he is still exploring ways in which he might help accelerate cancer research once he and President Obama leave office.

"I’m going to stay involved in this effort [cancer research] as long as I’m alive," Biden said, adding that if Donald Trump is elected president, he hopes to work with him on the initiative too. 

“I would hope [Trump] would bring, attract, out of just pure patriotic necessity, some very good minds to let him know that there is a lot of money we’re spending in the federal government, billions of dollars on medical research,” Biden said, “and there is a consensus.”

It stands to reason that Biden would be interested in advancing cancer research, as he lost his son Beau to the disease. It is also, however, quite telling that Biden's reference to Trump is markedly softer than others he's made in the past. Also telling is that the vice president, whom Democratic operatives hoped would lead the Party if Clinton had to step down for health reasons, has no interest whatsoever in working for a Clinton administration. 

While Party members usually put on a good face and show support for one another as a matter of course (even when they don't agree with each others' policies or even like each other), sometimes the facade cracks, and the truth shines through.