Stephen Colbert, Joe Biden Hold a Family Meeting with America

Joe Biden, not Tom Hanks, is America’s dad. It’s just the truth. So, when Stephen Colbert decided to hold a family meeting with America, it only seemed fitting for him to invite the incredibly popular vice president. Of course, Colbert and Biden struck a tone of comfort. “Pops and I, we’ve been worried about all these sudden changes. We know you’re worried about the changes the family’s going through,” said Colbert.

Biden continued: “It happens to every family, but I’m telling you: This terrible feeling you’re having right now, it’s not permanent. It’ll be over in four years—maybe eight.” Biden also gave America some fireworks, and told it to go have some fun. Thanks, dad.

Biden also sat down for a proper interview with Colbert, one in which he clarified comments he’d made earlier in the week about a potential presidential bid in 2020. “You and I talked about this in a different context before: I’m a great respecter of fate,” Biden told Colbert. “I don’t plan on running again, but to say you know it’s going to happen in four years I just think is not rational.”

“That,” Colbert said, “is the sound of a door creaking open.”

Biden responded, saying, “I can’t see the circumstance in which I’d run, but what I learned a long, long time ago, Stephen, is to never say never. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Hell, Donald Trump’s going to be 74, I’ll be 77—and in better shape. What the heck?”

Biden last spoke with Colbert last October, when he had yet to decide whether he would enter the 2016 presidential race, and was grieving the loss of his son to brain cancer. “I know I made the right decision for my family. I know I made the right decision. I’m not sure I would have been able to put my whole heart into it,” Biden said. “Do I think that I was best prepared at this moment to lead the country? I did because I thought the issues of the greatest concern were in my wheelhouse, things I’ve dealt with my whole career.”

Whatever Biden decides to do next, we’re going to miss him. Mike Pence just won’t be the same. Check out the clips above and below.