Biden hopes for key endorsement ahead of SC primary

After speaking Sunday at a prominent black church in North Charleston, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he wasn't banking on the endorsement of South Carolina's influential congressman Jim Clyburn ahead of Saturday's primary.

"I'm not counting on anything," Biden told reporters, though he added that Clyburn's blessing "will be a big deal."

The House majority whip said Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press" that he will endorse on Wednesday after the previous night's debate in Charleston.

Biden said he's talked to Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of Congress, in the last "week or so."

Clyburn is close to Biden but said Sunday that he's heard from Democrats who have been disappointed in Biden's debate performances.

Biden also said he wasn't worried about billionaire Tom Steyer cutting into his strength among African Americans in South Carolina's primary Saturday.

Steyer finished well behind the pack in Nevada and appears to be out of the running for any delegates.

He has spent heavily on ads in South Carolina and polls suggest he's cut into Biden's advantages among black voters in the state.

Biden seemed worried enough Sunday still to take a shot at Steyer for making some of his personal fortune investing in private prisons.

"You can't hide your record," Biden said, after noting that Steyer and another billionaire, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, have spent hundreds of millions of their own dollars on advertising in the race.