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
Former president Barack Obama has told allies in recent days that President Biden’s path to victory has greatly diminished and he thinks the president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy, according to multiple people briefed on his thinking.
Obama has only spoken with Biden once since the debate, and he has been clear in his conversations with others that the future of Biden’s candidacy is a decision for the president to make. He has emphasized that his concern is protecting Biden and his legacy, and has pushed back against the idea that he alone can influence Biden’s decision-making process.
Behind the scenes, Obama has been deeply engaged in conversations about the future of Biden’s campaign, taking calls from many anxious Democrats, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and has shared his views about the president’s challenges, according to people with knowledge of the calls, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
A spokesperson for Obama declined to comment.
[…]
Obama’s concerns come against the backdrop of a widening anxiety gripping the Democratic Party about Biden’s prospects and their potential impact on other candidates. Democratic donors, activists and elected officials are increasingly turning to a small group of veteran elected leaders to help guide them out of the crisis created by Biden’s bungled June 27 debate performance.
Congress’s top Democrats, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), have both spoken directly with Biden in the past week, warning about the widely held concerns that his candidacy could hurt the chances for Democratic control of either legislative body next year.
[…]
Pelosi has taken an even more active role behind the scenes, resisting efforts by Biden to end the debate about his continued candidacy, according to people familiar with her efforts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
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Of course, Obama won’t be Michael Myers with a kitchen knife here. He added that Biden was a great president whose legacy would be threatened by a Republican Congress or something along those lines. Like the Florida Panthers, who just won the Stanley Cup, the Democrats have tried to quote the guys at “Spittin’ Chicklets,” the “graceful brutality” approach, constantly hitting the president with data showing this race slipping away, much like his mental health, following his disastrous June 27 debate.
Obama acted like a mob boss, being a key figure behind the George Clooney op-ed that called on Biden to quit the race. The actor, or his ghostwriter, used brutal lines directed at the president, like the man he saw at the Los Angeles fundraiser with Obama, who was the same person we all saw during the debate. Many speculated correctly that there was no way this would have been published without Obama's green light. Obama did not urge Clooney to write the piece but didn't dissuade him.
To credit Biden’s staff, who have insulated the president in a cocoon, it initially worked, being unable to penetrate the guardrails that keep Biden in a delusional reality where he’s winning the race. Now, infected with COVID, assaulted by bad polling, and pervasively harassed by the party brass, it looks like it’s starting to percolate through the layers of protection that have kept the president blissfully unaware that he was charting a course of total political disaster for the Democrats. Now that this dump Biden push is a party, Obama decided to join the mutiny.
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