Is Joe Biden mulling a White House run?

Vice President Joe Biden is actively exploring a possible presidential run, a move which would jolt the Democratic field and its frontrunner Hillary Clinton, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Traditionally, a Democrat would not take on a fellow party member who was leading the field decisively -- and Biden has not done so officially.

Still, “Biden's advisers have started to reach out to Democratic leaders and donors who have not yet committed to Mrs Clinton, or who have grown concerned about what they see as her increasingly visible vulnerabilities as a candidate,” the Times reported.

Also Saturday, Times columnist Maureen Dowd reported that Biden had been holding meetings at his residence, “talking to friends, family and donors about jumping in” to challenge Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two nominating states.

The former first lady, ex-U.S. senator and former secretary of state -- an attorney by training -- is sometimes criticized as being lawyerly and evasive.

She has also is seen as somewhat vulnerable after controversy over her use of her personal email for State Department correspondence, and for having deleted 30,000 emails then wiping her personal server clean.

Seventeen Republicans are officially seeking the party's presidential nomination, including former Florida governor Jeb Bush and conservative Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Five Democrats have declared so far that they are seeking their party's presidential nomination: Clinton, Vermont's independent Senator Bernie Sanders, former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, former Virginia senator Jim Webb and former senator and governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.

Clinton leads rival Democrats with 55 percent support among Democratic voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. Sanders is second with 17 percent, while Biden -- even undeclared -- earns 13 percent.