Mark Halperin has suggested that Vice President JD Vance may not run for president in 2028 amid widespread speculation that he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are headed for a bruising primary race against one another.

“We get to what I think is driving a lot of this, besides people loving Marco Rubio — and a lot people in my sources do — is Vance. Concerns that Vance is not handling himself well, not just shackled to the administration, their gas prices, and potential bloodbath in the midterms, and the Iran war, but a belief that the downside image of Vance is true. That he’s a phony, that he’s not good with people, that that he comes off as aloof or odd to some,” began Halperin on Friday’s edition of his show. “I will say that in the next two years, as people in the party and the media are comparing Rubio and Vance side by side, I don’t think Vance can win’em, win the performance competition. I don’t think the-, I, don’t, and the likability. I may be wrong, but I just think Rubio has improved enough and the perceptions are such that Vance is going to have a hard time of people looking at him in a press conference, in an interview on the stump, whether he drops his nasty tweet persona or not, I think he’s going to a hard time winning that. And that’s a big part of how people think about presidential candidates and presidents — likeability, performance, et cetera.”

Then he floated a scenario most pundits haven’t even considered:

Here’s the bottom line for me. These two guys are genuine friends, and even though people tell me I’m naive, you cannot beat an incumbent vice president running for president unless you rip their face off. That’s just the way our politics work. So I do not think they’ll run against each other. I also am not sure that one or both of them will run because they’re young dads — the Vances are about to have a baby, Rubio’s kids are still relatively young — and they both know what scrutiny is like, and they both know, they’re both smart enough to know, that if they run, the level of scrutiny they get will be unlike anything they’ve ever gotten before.

So if Vance chooses not to run, and I think that’s a possibility, probably because of his kids, I think Rubio will be in extremely strong position. I think he’ll have the support of the president, of Vance, his friend, and I think you’ll, he’ll be pretty close to a lock for the nomination. If Vance runs, I think they’ll run together. I think they’ll be a ticket, and they may even announce as a ticket from the beginning of the campaign, potentially, and raise $2 billion before the New Hampshire primary. Vance is a very competitive guy. They both are, but my sense of it is Vance is in some ways more competitive than Rubio. Rubio is a little bit more laid back, a little bit more let things come to him. Obviously you don’t get to be secretary of state if you’re not competitive, they’re both competitive, but I think Vance is more so. And I still think for all the current boomlet for Rubio, I still think in the end, if he [Vance] runs –and he’s more likely to run than not — he’ll be endorsed by the president, and Rubio will be for him, not run against him. And maybe run as his running mate.

Watch above via Next Up with Mark Halperin on YouTube.

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