categorically false and the characterization is offensive. as you said, though, kate, what they are not denying, they're not confirming or denying is whether he spoke with maureen dowden. if you talk to allies of the vice president today about this story, what you'll get back from them, they'll basically say, yes, he probably spoke with her, but if you know how joe biden talks to people, he talks and he talks and he talks, and he jumps from one anecdote and detail to one observation, so who knows how this conversation went. this is a grieving father who was going through all sorts of emotions and telling all sorts of anecdotes. it's not a calculated effort to launch a presidential campaign. it's a grieving father talking to a newspaper columnist who he's known for some time. the significance of this, in terms of the politics, all of this talk about joe biden, needing to make a decision on whether to run for president, well, this personal drama, over the last year, over his son's death, over his handling of it,