Obama is on the phone to define a strategy in fear that Biden will lose to Trump

WASHINGTON – As the election approaches, President Joe Biden calls the former president regularly Barack Obama to update you on the electoral race or talk about family.

However, Obama also appeals to Jeffrey Zients, White House chief of staff, and senior Biden campaign advisors to define strategies and give advice.

This level of commitment illustrates Obama’s support for Biden, but also what one of his top advisers described as serious concern on the former president’s part that Biden could lose to the former president. Donald Trump.

The adviser, who was not authorized to speak publicly, commented that Obama is “always” worried about a Biden defeat.

And the councilor added that for this reason he is ready to “fight” alongside her his former vice president in an election that could come down to narrow margins in a handful of states.

Perhaps for the first time the two agree on Biden’s future.

As a sign of the future, they will appear together on Thursday, with the former president Bill Clintonat a major fundraiser for Biden’s campaign in Radio City Concert Hall From New York.

It hasn’t always been this way.

In 2015, as Biden mourned the loss of his oldest son, Beau, and contemplated a run for president, Obama gently suggested that it wasn’t his time.

In an autobiography, “Promise me, dad,” Biden wrote that Obama told him that if “he could make anyone president for the next eight years,” it would be Biden.

The vice president wrote that “the mere possibility of a presidential campaign, something Beau wanted, gave us purpose and hope: a way to tempt fate.”

However, after assessing the stakes with Obama, he withdrew from the race and stepped aside in favor of Obama Hillary Clintonwho the Obama White House considered a much stronger candidate.

The decision has generated mistrust among others lasting resentment among some of Biden’s advisors.

Many of them work in the White House today and believe that Obama and his advisors marginalized Biden because they think he could have changed the course of history and defeated Trump in 2016.

In 2019, when Biden entered the race against then-President Trump, Obama hid his support until after the Democratic primary, even as he privately worked to clear the way for Biden.

He also gave his blessing for the Biden campaign to use his interactions at the Obama White House in campaign materials, including footage of when Obama surprised his vice president with the Presidential Medal of Freedom shortly before leaving office.

In the 16 years since their first campaign together, the relationship has been defined by the characteristics of an odd couple:

the Harvard professor and the boy from Scranton.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who continued to serve a former junior member.

The cold mind and the Irish temperament.

As time went on, the two grew stronger, and Biden leveraged his relationships on Capitol Hill to help Congress pass a massive stimulus package during the election. The great recession and to promote the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

He famously congratulated Obama when the president signed the health care law and Biden whispered to him:

“Mr President, this is very important” interspersed with an adjective not suitable for national television.

Even if they weren’t aligned on everything.

Biden vehemently opposed Obama’s decision to send more American troops Afghanistan in 2009, a disagreement that would become the focus of Robert Hur, the special prosecutor who investigated the president’s handling of classified documents.

At Biden’s Delaware residence, investigators found a confidential, handwritten memo that Biden sent to Obama about Afghanistan.

According to Biden’s advisers, their relationship transformed from friendly to almost familial after Beau Biden’s death.

When Obama delivered Beau’s eulogy in June 2015, the president looked down from the dais and told Biden that he and his family were “honorary members” from the Biden clan.

“And the Biden family rule applies here: We always support you, we always will … my word as Biden,” Obama said, a moment that people close to Biden described as a major turning point for the current president, who was stunned by the warm comments Obama made in public.

However, during his interview with Hur, Biden explained another crucial disconnect:

Obama’s contrary opinion on Biden’s political future.

Obama and his advisers had chosen Biden because of his political experience, but also because he had what Obama’s team considered limited career options beyond the vice presidency.

Biden reminded Hur that, as he was considering a presidential run in 2015, “there were still a lot of people when I left the Senate encouraging me to run for this term, except for the president,” Biden said, referring to Obama .

“I don’t say this with malice. She just thought she had a better chance of winning the presidency than me,” a reference to Clinton.

However, according to White House officials and those working for Obama, any lingering mistrust among staff has dissipated, as they see an urgent need for Biden to defeat Trump in November.

Privately, Democrats close to Obama noted that their concerns about Biden’s chances were somewhat eased by the president’s conflicted performance during his State of the Union address.

This was stated in an email sent by the group of former Obama advisors and obtained by the New York Times.

“We hope you are as motivated as we were after the State of the Union!,” the group wrote in an email to supporters.

“President Biden is ready.”

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