Barack Obama has in recent months met with at least nine prospective 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Deval Patrick, pulling them in for one-on-one sessions at his Washington office.

All the meetings were arranged quietly, without even some close advisers to the people involved being told of the conversations, in part because of how much Obama bristles at his private meetings becoming public knowledge. All have been confirmed to POLITICO by multiple people who have been briefed on the secretive sit-downs.

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Joe Biden knows that winning in 2020 would require a shoot-the-moon set of circumstances and luck. So his team is on the hunt for a moon shot.

Between stops on his book tour and in the ramp-up for what will be a heavy midterms campaign schedule, a tight circle of aides has been brainstorming a range of tear-up-the-playbook ideas for a White House run, according to people who’ve been part of the discussions or told about them.

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Joe Biden has started recruiting top donors for his PAC's finance committee — but some of them are resisting signing on, wary that he'll decide again not to pull the trigger on a presidential bid and that their money might be better spent elsewhere.

They want to see clear moves that his own campaign is underway before writing him more checks. That’s not coming anytime soon: though Biden has mapped out ambitious plans to help Democrats running in this year's midterms, he hasn't set a timeline for deciding on a 2020 bid, let alone decided to run, according to four people who've spoken with him.

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Former Vice President Joe Biden will headline the House Democratic retreat next week, according to a person familiar with the planning.

Biden will be the keynote speaker at the three-day confab, which kicks off in Cambridge, Maryland, on Feb. 7. Biden will address the 194-member caucus on the opening day, the person familiar with the planning said.

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Bernie Sanders convened his top political advisers in Washington on Saturday for a planning meeting that included a discussion of the feasibility and shape of a possible 2020 presidential campaign, half a dozen senior Democrats familiar with the gathering confirmed to POLITICO.

The top-line message the Vermont senator received from the operatives gathered during the government shutdown was a more formal version of the one they’ve been giving him regularly for months: You would be one of the front-runners for the Democratic nomination. And if you want to run, it’s time to start seriously planning accordingly.

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Americans love Oprah Winfrey. But they aren’t exactly clamoring for the media mogul and former talk-show host to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020.

A majority of voters across several polls don’t think Winfrey should run for the White House, according to polls conducted since Winfrey’s much-heralded speech at a Hollywood awards show launched a round of presidential speculation. Even among Democratic voters, more say she shouldn’t run for president than should.

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In early December, as President Donald Trump’s approval rating reached a new low of 32 percent, the commander in chief was rating the 2020 Democratic field from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — who had recently bested Trump in a poll that tested the two septuagenarians in a head-to-head matchup — wasn’t a serious threat and would be easy to beat, Trump told a Republican with close ties to the White House who was in the room.

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Elizabeth Warren has spent the past year making a series of below-the-radar moves that would put her in prime position to run for president in 2020 if she decides to.

The liberal icon and Republican bete noire has amassed more money in her campaign war chest than nearly any senator in modern history, groomed political connections with Democrats who've been skeptical of her in the past, and worked to bolster her bipartisan and foreign policy bona fides.

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Terry McAuliffe is set to host the Democratic National Committee’s major year-end fundraising reception, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO — making the outgoing Virginia governor and former DNC chairman one of the only potential 2020 contenders to raise much-needed funds for the party as it struggles for cash.

Appearing with DNC Chair Tom Perez, McAuliffe and his wife, Dorothy, will host donors at their home in McLean, Virginia, on Dec. 14. Tickets to the event are going for up to $33,900 per person. The veteran party operative, fundraiser and Clinton ally is set to leave office in Virginia in early 2018 following last week’s election of his deputy, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, to replace him.

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Joe Biden thinks it’s critical that Donald Trump not get a second term — and though it’s early, he doesn’t yet see anyone else who could stop that from happening.

So, he's been telling people privately, that might mean he’ll just have to run himself.

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CHARLESTON, S.C. — Former Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday evening urged Americans to stand up to hate groups — and took direct aim at President Donald Trump, who he said “has publicly proclaimed the moral equivalency of Neo-Nazis, Klansmen and those who oppose their hate.”

Speaking at the centennial fundraising dinner for the Charleston branch of the NAACP, Biden said, “This is a moment for this nation to declare what this president can’t with any clarity, consistency or vision: There is no place in America for hate groups.”

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MANCHESTER, N.H. — Old but well-known vs. fresh but anonymous: That’s how the 2020 Democratic presidential field is shaping up so far — and it’s causing anxiety within a party starting to acknowledge that President Donald Trump could be harder to beat for reelection than the base would like to admit.

The older generation — Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — would be tested and experienced on the national stage, with high name recognition and built-in support. They’d also all be in their 70s, people who’ve been around forever for Trump to use as perfect foils for exactly what he stands against.

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Former Obama Cabinet secretary Julián Castro has formed a new PAC as he steps up his political activity and considers a possible run for president in 2020.

The new group is called “Opportunity First,” a favorite catchphrase of Castro’s since his days as mayor of San Antonio, though it is also similar to President Donald Trump’s “America First” slogan. The group will support candidates for federal, state and local office and could finance other political activities for Castro, who has already lent a hand to several congressional and gubernatorial candidates around the country since the end of the Obama administration.

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On Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden will launch a new PAC, American Possibilities, giving him a way to support Democratic political candidates while keeping his own options open for a potential 2020 presidential run.

Officially, the group will be “dedicated to electing people who believe that this country is about dreaming big, and supporting groups and causes that embody that spirit," according to the PAC's launch materials

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Joe Biden has been saying yes to nearly all the political invitations coming his way, with new ones arriving almost daily. Privately, the former vice president and his staff have started talking about how to begin planning a strategy with a roughly 18-month timeline so that if he decides on another presidential run, he’ll be best positioned to get it off the ground.

Biden will be 77 by the time of the next Iowa caucuses, but Biden 2020 just might happen.

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The likely 2020 class of Democratic presidential candidates is starting to resemble “an old-folks’ home,” according to retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

Reid recently told an aide that he was unsure whether he would support Vice President Joe Biden should he challenge President-elect Donald Trump for the White House in 2020 because the field has yet to take shape.

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Vice President Joe Biden has once again refused to rule out running for president in 2020.

"Four years is a lifetime in American politics," Biden said in a pretaped interview with host Jake Tapper that aired Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "And I think nominees are determined by their parties based mostly on what skill set is most needed at that time. And who knows where we're going to be two years from now, when people are really starting to look seriously at what they're going to do."

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Vice President Joe Biden is leaving his options open for 2020.

After presiding over the Senate Tuesday, where a cancer-treatment bill was renamed to honor his late son Beau, Biden spoke to reporters about his final days in the Senate before saying he was "going to run again."

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