Twenty-seven days after Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States, Vice President Joe Biden told reporters he would make his third bid for the highest office in the land four years from now.

"I'm going to run in 2020," Biden, 74, told a group of reporters at the Capitol Monday evening. "So, uh, what the hell, man."

When asked if he was serious or joking, the vice president paused for about four seconds and sighed. He was then asked if he would run for president.

"Yeah, I am," Biden said. "Yeah, I am. We're going to run again."

When pressed further, Biden backed away somewhat from his statement, saying, "I'm not committing not to run. I learned a long time ago fate has a funny way of intervening."

Biden was on Capitol Hill to preside over the Senate as it cleared away procedural hurdles to a biomedical research bill he's supporting. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., got the Senate to rename a portion of the bill after the vice president's son Beau, who died of brain cancer last year.

Biden's possible entry into the 2016 presidential race was a subject of intense will-he-or-won't-he speculation. He ultimately decided last October not to challenge eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The vice president previously sought the Democratic nomination in 1988 and 2008. He suspended his first campaign in September 1987 after becoming embroiled in a series of plagiarism controversies. In 2008, Biden ended his bid for the Democratic nomination after the Iowa caucuses and later endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama.

Biden will turn 78 shortly after the 2020 election. Ronald Reagan was just a few days short of turning 78 when he left office in January 1989, making him the oldest person to serve as president.

Fox News' Chad Pergram and the Associated Press contributed to this report.