Barack Obama allegedly told Joe Biden that he didn’t ‘have to run’ for the 2020 nomination and has advised him to shake-up his campaign team.
The comments came from the former president earlier this year according to the New York Times. Despite this Biden put himself forward to run and is currently leading polls.
Obama allegedly told him ‘You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t.’
To which he responded that he could not forgive himself if he turned down a second shot to beat Donald Trump, the Times reported.
While Obama has expressed that he will no make any formal endorsement during the primaries, the Times claim he has counselled Biden more than any other candidate.
He has allegedly met with his former right-hand man multiple times and advised changes in his team, even suggesting people to hire.
Former president Barack Obama (left) is claimed to have told Joe Biden (right) that he didn’t ‘have to’ run for the Democratic nomination before he launched his 2020 campaign
Biden (left) allegedly replied that he could not forgive himself if he turned down a shot to beat Donald Trump (right) for a second time. Currently Biden is beating Trump in most of the polls online, in some by up to 13 points
Obama is believed to have told Biden that his team were ‘too old’ and ‘out of touch with the current political climate’.
He suggested that Biden should hire younger staffers who he believes are more capable of connecting with younger votes.
The former vice president has placed higher than Trump in the majority of data from Real Clear Politics, in some by up to 13 points.
Now Biden is 13.2 points above Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic race and more over Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg, Real Clear Politics reports.
A Fox News poll released Friday showed Biden doing the best again against the president, beating 50 per cent to Trump’s 38 per cent.
In the rest of the head-to-head matchups, Trump came in at 38 per cent to Sander’s 48 per cent, Warren’s 45 per cent, and Harris’ 46 per cent.
It marked the first time Warren and Harris topped Trump in the poll.
The Fox News poll was taken between August 11-13 and contacted 1,013 registered voters on landlines and cellphones. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent.
Obama has allegedly counselled former VP Biden more than any other candidate and has even suggested that he needs to modernize his campaign team
Biden was allegedly told by Obama that he needed to ditch his ‘too old’ staffers in favor of those from the younger generation who can connect better with young voters
Biden was ‘quietly pressured’ against running in the 2016 president race by Obama, who favored then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
‘I regret it every day,’ Biden said of his decision not to run but added it was ‘the right decision’ for his family, in an interview with an NBC affiliate earlier this year.
In a March meeting Obama summoned top campaign advisers – former White House communications director Anita Dunn and Biden’s spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield.
He then briefed them on what they should do for their campaign’s digital and communications strategy.
Obama warned staff that whether Biden wins or loses they must ensure that he does not ’embarrass himself’ or ‘damage his legacy’, according to the Times.
In previous years and during the Democratic debates, Biden has been critiqued for being traditional and his views on race.
Notably in 2007 when he said that Obama was ‘the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy’.
Despite Obama laughing it off, it went onto fuel the public’s fear over his views, the Times reported.
Obama allegedly made it clear in a March meeting that Biden must not ’embarrass himself’ or ‘damage his legacy’ during the campaign
Biden (left) was called-out during the last Democratic debate for referencing two segregationists and opposing school busing in the 1970s and 1980s by Kamala Harris (right)
During the Democratic debate in June, Kamala Harris said that she did not believe Biden was a racist but did find his comments about having working with segregationists ‘very hurtful’.
She referred to Biden’s attempt to defend against comments that he was ‘old fashioned’ when he invoked the names of two segregationists.
He was also claimed to have been against school busing, which was used as a form of desegregation.
Harris at the time explained: ‘There was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.’
Biden tried to clarify that saying: ‘What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education.’
The Times claimed this was untrue, he allegedly was a leading opponent during the 1970s and 1980s when he served on the Senate.
Biden was also claimed to have supported several bills and amendments barring the busing.