Former President Barack Obama’s interest in supporting other candidates in the 2020 election created friction between himself and current President Joe Biden, a new book about the two Democrats claims.
Biden watched from the sidelines as the “brain trust” of his old friend and former commander-in-chief began to display interest in other contenders to support for the election, when Obama’s former vice president was widely known to be on the verge of making his announcement of candidacy. The current president didn’t take the news particularly well.
“Biden had started making a show of reading articles about Obama world’s interest in others. ‘You believe this s***?’ he’d ask aloud,” reads an excerpt of “The Long Alliance: The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama,” written by New York magazine national correspondent Gabriel Debenedetti.
Obama offered some encouragement to former Cabinet Secretary Julian Castro, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and other hopefuls, the book claims. Some of them had approached him for advice, while other former members of Obama’s inner circle started gravitating towards others such as Beto O’Rourke or Pete Buttigieg. The whole situation left Biden feeling jilted.
After former President Donald Trump upset Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, Biden was one of the first to be speculated as running in 2020. While Obama eventually claimed that his backing of his former VP was “one of the best decisions I ever made,” he felt more than a little unsure about a presidential bid for his former running mate.
“Obama had whispered to friends that he strongly doubted Biden could create the kind of inspiring connection with Iowans and New Hampshirites that Obama once had,” the book said. “Obama was particularly certain that Biden and his advisers simply didn’t understand internet-era campaigning.”
At one point, Obama attempted to talk Biden out of the race, impressing on him that he “really” didn’t have to vie for the White House.
“You don’t have anything left to prove, he insisted, trying not to make it seem like he was strong-arming Biden out of running so much as hoping to provide him with breathing room to make the correct decision,” the book read.
However, “Biden decoded the message and stood fast. He wouldn’t go through this again. He had a chance to remove Trump from office, he said, and simply couldn’t abide passing it up.”
“The Long Alliance” also discussed the tumultuous beginning of Biden and Obama’s relationship. In an excerpt released to the Daily Mail several weeks ago, Obama reportedly thought that his future vice president tended to “ramble, clearly loving every minute of it.”
During a confirmation hearing for secretary of state nominee Condoleezza Rice, Obama wrote a note to a staffer saying, “Shoot. Me. Now.” Biden was, at the time, helping to lead the Senate proceedings.
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