Former President Barack Obama and Joe Biden aren’t on speaking terms these days. Whether it’s due to past resentments, like Obama picking Hillary Clinton over his then-vice president as his successor in 2016 and dissuading Joe from running in 2016, or the nature of Biden’s job, in theory, the pair’s relationship has reportedly chilled.
There have been multiple reports that Biden still seethes that his former boss talked him out of running and passed him over, along with petty squabbles over policy. Biden felt Obama and his team weren’t as experienced as he was in foreign policy; the impetus for taking classified documents on Afghanistan was for Biden to have the final say on the 2009 surge. Biden was not too thrilled to be approached by Obama in 2020, who told him outright that he didn’t need to run for president.
Because of these past interactions, Obama has held his fire on Biden, who reportedly becomes even more hard-headed about not dropping out when those from the Obama orbit enter the chat. Obama also knows how it would look if he appeared to be the lead quarterback in the dump Biden movement—he doesn’t want to be seen as Brutus. With the dam seemingly breaking last night and more voices from the heavyweight class of the party weighing in, the former president now feels it’s time to make his case against Joe (again) (via WaPo):
Obama tells allies Biden needs to seriously consider his viability
— Marianne LeVine (@marianne_levine) July 18, 2024
By @tylerpager @michaelschererhttps://t.co/e0blZ6x3M3