Carney To Fox’s Ed Henry: ‘It Would Be Awesome’ If Cruz and Rand Paul Run in 2016

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney made the unusual move of encouraging Republican senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul to pursue the presidential nomination during his daily briefing Friday, even if his words were in jest. Carney was deflecting questions about the 2016 Democratic field when he volunteered that he thinks it would be “awesome” if those two Republicans entered the race.

Carney was avoiding a question from Fox News’ Ed Henry about Joe Biden’s chances in 2016, given the revelation from the new book Double Down: Game Change 2012 suggesting President Obama considered replacing Biden with Hillary Clinton as his second-term running mate. “Does the president believe the vice president would be a strong president?”

“Sure,” Carney answered, adding that Obama picked Biden as his running mate “for the right reason, which is that, if necessary, Vice President Biden to be president.” But the press secretary was not about to announce an endorsement from Obama for the 2016 race, at least on the Democratic side. “We can talk about the Republicans,” Carney said. “That’s pretty interesting.”

Henry gladly took him up on the offer, immediately asking for Carney’s thoughts on Cruz and Paul specifically.

“I think they all ought to run,” Carney said. “It would be awesome.”

Watch video below, via C-SPAN:

[photo via screengrab]

— —

>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!