Though former Vice President Joe Biden reportedly sees himself as the “best hope” for Democrats in 2020, former President Barack Obama told guests at a private reception in Hawaii this past weekend that what the Democrat Party truly needs is an infusion of “new blood.”

“We have a deficit of leadership, and we need new blood,” the 44th president told guests and community leaders at an Obama Foundation reception at East-West Center’s Hawaii Imin Conference Center on Sunday evening, according to Honolulu Civil Beat.

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“People cling to power instead of seeing the power in other people,” Obama also said.

Despite his former boss’s contention that embracing fresh, progressive faces affords Democrats their best chance to unseat President Donald Trump, the 76-year old former vice president continues to eye that coveted seat in the Oval Office.

Biden will be making his decision in the next two weeks, according to The New York Times on Sunday; he reportedly told a senior Democratic official last week that he is “likely to run.”

Related: Cher Wants Biden to Run Against Trump

If he does run, Biden may find himself going head-to-head with 38-year-old Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).

Swalwell told host Martha MacCallum on Fox News Channel’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum” on Monday night that he is “very close” to making a decision on a 2020 run.

The congressman said he plans to accept an invitation to visit the political bellwether states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina in the next few weeks.

Swalwell serves on the Committee on the Judiciary and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he is the ranking member on the Subcommittee on the CIA.

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He showered compliments on the former vice president — but sprinkled his comments with suggestions that someone “different” may be the key for Democrats in securing control of the executive branch in 2020.

“I love Joe Biden. He’s done a lot for our country. But we have the benefit of so many talented people considering running for president. And I don’t think we’ll go wrong if any of them become the nominee. So it’s not a matter of who’s better. It’s just who’s different.”

On whether he considered Joe Biden to be too old to run, Swalwell ducked and swerved.

“No, no, no. But I think we cannot necessarily count on the same old leaders to solve the same old problems … Going forward … we’re going to need people who have not been in this effort and failed in the past. We’re going to need people who believe that we can actually do that and who have the energy to make that happen.”

“The water’s warm. Come on in,” he also said.

“Joe Biden has been a bridesmaid in the presidential campaigns to more weddings than Liz Taylor and Larry King combined, and yet he’s never quite made it,” joked former Gov. Mike Huckabee on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” on Monday night.

“The Democrats have a very young field,” Huckabee added. “I don’t care how old the guy is, in all honesty. The issue is about ideas, and whether a person is going to come and just oil the machinery or if the person is going to be disruptive and try to really change this country,” he also said, noting that it was Trump’s disruptive style that won him the presidency and summarily turned Washington on its ear.

When host Laura Ingraham showed a clip of Biden expressing support for building a barrier on the southern border in exchange for DACA-related concessions despite the fact that it would mean a political win for Trump, Juan Williams, a Fox News contributor, said, “What you’re seeing there is the real face of the Democrats.”

DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program of Obama’s that protected eligible youth and others from deportation who were brought to the country illegally by their parents.

“Joe Biden has been a bridesmaid in the presidential campaigns to more weddings than Liz Taylor and Larry King combined, and yet he’s never quite made it.”

Williams also noted that recent polls demonstrate that Biden is the leading Democrat choice among likely presidential contenders.
Williams and Huckabee disagreed on the likelihood of Biden’s winning the nomination.

“No way,” said Huckabee.

“Biden could win in places like Michigan, Wisconsin, [and] Pennsylvania,” said Williams. “It was a narrow victory for President Trump … just from a donor perspective, a political strategist’s perspective, this is a guy who could go in there, and … possibly win some Trump voters back over to the Democratic Party’s ranks,” he added.

“I have always liked Joe Biden,” said Ingraham, naming him as her favorite among the current field of Democrat contenders.

She praised Biden’s pragmatism on matters such as building the wall — and also jokingly called him a “gaffe-o-matic.”

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Michele Blood is a Flemington, New Jersey-based freelance writer and regular contributor to LifeZette.