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 "As we walked out of the room and walked upstairs, I said - I told
him my opinion that I thought he should go, but follow his own
instincts," Biden said during an event at George Washington
University.
"I never ... say what I think finally until I go up in the Oval
(Office) with him alone.”
Biden, whose comments came as he weighs whether to enter the 2016
presidential race, has previously said he advised Obama against
approving the 2011 raid without taking further steps to verify that
bin Laden was present at the Pakistan compound where he was
eventually found.
"I said, ‘Wait another seven days for information'" Biden said at a
fundraising event in New Hampshire on May 26, 2011, according to
reports in The New York Times and other media.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner in the 2016
presidential race, who was Obama's secretary of state at the time,
has highlighted her support for the raid. Biden avoided naming her
among those who spoke forcefully in favor of the operation going
forward.
"There were only two people who were definitive and were absolutely
certain," he said. Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta
said "go," Biden said, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said
"don't go."
Clinton in the Democratic debate last week took a veiled shot at
Biden by emphasizing her involvement in Obama's decision to
authorize the raid.
Biden has said that he has been mulling a possible bid for the
Democratic nomination, but Clinton's strong performance at the
debate has led some in the party to conclude Biden has waited too
long to jump into the race.
Clinton's campaign had seemed to be stumbling with the persistent
controversy over her use of a private email server as secretary of
state, raising doubts among some voters about her trustworthiness.
Her poll numbers have risen since the debate.
Biden took a verbal shot at Clinton during a second event on
Tuesday, knocking her comment last week that Republicans were her
enemies.
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"End this notion that it's naive to think we can speak well of the
other party and cooperate," Biden said, his voice rising. "What is
naive is to think it's remotely possible to govern this country
unless we can."
The White House declined to weigh in on whether Biden had changed
his story about his position on the bin Laden move.
"I don't have any insight to share with you about the private
conversations between the president and the vice president," White
House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
A Biden campaign would put Obama in the awkward position of having
to choose between his vice president of seven years and his former
secretary of state should the president decide to endorse a
candidate during the 2016 primary season.
Biden was speaking during events to honor former Vice President
Walter "Fritz" Mondale, who served under President Jimmy Carter. He
was joined by several political heavyweights who spoke about their
relationships with Mondale, who served in the Senate, representing
Minnesota, before becoming vice president.
(Reporting by Alana Wise and Jeff Mason; Editing by Leslie Adler and
Stephen Coates)
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