Former Attorney General Eric Holder refused to rule out the possibility that he would run for president in 2020, and said he will decide before the end of the year if there is to be "another chapter" in his political life.
"We'll see," Holder said when a reporter asked him about a possible run for president during a breakfast Wednesday hosted by the Christian Science Monitor in Washington.
"I think I'll make a decision by the end of the year about whether there is another chapter in my government service," Holder said, according to reporters who attended the event.
A former judge and United States attorney for the District of Columbia, Holder currently leads the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a group that seeks to push back against the past decade of Republican gains in state legislatures and statewide offices.
With political backing from former President Barack Obama, Holder said the group plans to spend $30 million during the 2018 campaign cycle.
Despite his coy response to the question of a presidential run, it's difficult to see how Holder might translate his legal career into a traditional resume for a presidential candidate.
In addition to a large body of government trial work that would likely provide fodder for his would-be opponents, Holder also worked in private practice for nearly a decade, representing corporate giants such as Merck and the National Football League.
Still, if Holder decides not to run for president, there could be other political offices he might consider. As a native New Yorker, Holder could be a formidable candidate for a Senate seat in the state, should one of New York's current senators, Kirsten Gillibrand, decide to run for president.
Attempts to reach Holder on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
One thing Holder has working in his favor, politically, is his career in law enforcement, on display Wednesday as he defended the FBI, which has come under attack recently from President Donald Trump.
"I would hope that the president would rethink the way in which he has attacked career people at the FBI, career people in the Justice Department, [and] career people in our intelligence community," Holder said.
Holder also defended Trump's attorney general, Jeff Sessions, suggesting the president ought to treat his top law enforcement officer with more respect. Trump, he said, should "think about the ways in which he's spoken about his attorney general."