Former President Barack Obama salutes ‘friend’ Biden after reportedly playing role in his ouster
CHICAGO — Former President Barack Obama paid tribute to President Biden following the latter’s speech Monday evening, despite rumors that he played a key role in the mutiny against his former vice president.
Obama, 63, who is set to deliver the signature address of the evening Tuesday, commended Biden’s “decency” and called him a “friend.”
“What I admire most about Joe is his decency, his resilience, and his unshakable belief in the promise of our country. Over the last four years, those are the values America has needed most. I am proud to call him my president, and I’m so grateful to call him my friend,” Obama wrote on X.
Obama is also expected to provide the keynote address for the second night of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.
The former president had been largely quiet in the public eye during the mutiny against his former No. 2 after briefly downplaying the significance of Biden’s fumbling debate performance that triggered the revolt.
But behind the scenes, Obama privately confided to his allies that he believed Biden, 81, needed to do some soul-searching about the viability of his reelection bid and that the debate aftermath left him politically wounded, the Washington Post reported.
He fielded calls with a slew of jittery Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), per the report. At the same time, Obama reportedly hailed Biden as a great president.
Perhaps most significantly, Obama caught wind of movie star George Clooney’s plans to plow ahead with a major New York Times op-ed calling on Biden to step aside, Politico reported.
Clooney had reportedly reached out to Obama, his friend, beforehand to give him a heads-up, and Obama didn’t object to the move.
Since departing the White House, Obama has largely steered clear of testy internal Democratic spats and primary contests. He waited four days after Biden dropped out to publicly endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.
Following his rousing address in the United Center at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Biden jetted off to California for a reported vacation.
Virtually all of the prominent Democrats who turned on Biden have since reverted to singing his praises. The most notable is Pelosi.
Privately during the mutiny, Pelosi grilled Biden about polling data indicating he couldn’t win the presidential election and when he pushed back, she had him put his longtime adviser Mike Donilon on the phone, CNN reported.
“Nancy made clear that they could do this the easy way or the hard way,” one Democrat who had knowledge of the private conversations told Politico. “She gave them three weeks of the easy way. It was about to be the hard way.”
In public, Pelosi also raised eyebrows for suggesting on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” rumored to be one of Biden’s favorite programs, that there was still an open question about whether he would stay in the race, despite the president saying two days earlier that he was “firmly committed.”
She was seen engaging in a “We love Joe” chant at the convention Monday evening. Pelosi, a famously slick political operative, has defended her machinations and insisted that she merely wanted Biden to have a winning presidential campaign.
“Sometimes you have to take a punch for the children,” she told CNN Monday. “I did what I had to do.”
“My concern was not about the president, it was about his campaign,” she added, before implying that Vice President Kamala Harris ushered in “exuberance” and “excitement.”
Biden acknowledged that he hasn’t spoken with Pelosi in the time since he dropped out.
“No, I haven’t spoken to Nancy at all. No one influenced my decision. No one knew it was coming,” he told pool reporters in the wee Tuesday morning hours.
Another key figure in Biden’s decision to drop out, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is also set to speak at the Democratic National Convention later in the day Tuesday.
Schumer privately and forcefully encouraged Biden to step aside last month, ABC News reported, days before the president threw in the towel.
The Empire State Democrat has been coy about his private communications with Biden.
