John Kerry poured cold water Tuesday morning on speculation he was considering a 2020 presidential run.
“I doubt very much I’ll be running for office again,” the former secretary of State and Massachusetts senator said on “CBS This Morning.”
{mosads}The comments follows another CBS News interview in which Kerry did not rule out a 2020 run.
“Talking about 2020 right now is a total distraction and waste of time. What we need to do is focus on 2018. We need to win back the confidence of the country to move in a better direction and to do it in sensible ways.” Kerry said previously.
President Trump on Monday responded to a potential Kerry presidential campaign, tweeting: “I see that John Kerry, the father of the now terminated Iran deal, is thinking of running for President. I should only be so lucky – although the field that is currently assembling looks really good – FOR ME!”
Kerry on Tuesday downplayed the president’s tweet, saying, “I’m really not going to get into a back-and-forth on tweets. You know, I could give him a nickname, ‘Agent Orange’ or something and I could get back and forth, but it doesn’t take you anywhere.”
“The president uses tweets as a weapon of mass distraction, and he obviously has exposed the world to the potential of a weapon of mass destruction in Iran by pulling out of a deal that everybody in the world supports,” he added.
Kerry, who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, is out with a new memoir titled “Every Day is Extra.”