[231] Biden apologized to Obama in private for having spoken out,[232][233] while Obama acknowledged publicly it had been done from the heart.[229]
The Obama campaign valued Biden as a retail-level politician, and he had a heavy schedule of appearances in swing states as the reelection campaign began in earnest in spring 2012.[234][205] An August 2012 remark before a mixed-race audience that Republican proposals to relax Wall Street regulations would "put y'all back in chains" once again drew attention to Biden's propensity for colorful remarks.[234][235][236] In the vice-presidential debate on October 11 with Republican nominee Paul Ryan, Biden defended the Obama administration's record.[237][238] On November 6, Obama and Biden won reelection[239] over Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan with 332 of 538 Electoral College votes and 51% of the popular vote.[240]
In December 2012, Obama named Biden to head the Gun Violence Task Force, created to address the causes of school shootings and consider possible gun control to implement in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.