The cracks in the support for Joe Biden among his own party were on clear display when even his former boss and still the darling of left – Barack Obama – showed the current president little support at a recent event.
According to Fox News, “tensions were evident” between the Obama and Biden camps at the former’s nonprofit’s democracy forum earlier this month, with some feeling President Biden received insufficient support at the event from his old boss as he seeks to unite the Democratic Party.
“The takeaway of the weekend was not, ‘Hey team, we’re got to get the band back together to help Biden out,’” one attendee told the Washington Post. “If this is a supposedly existential threat and democracy is so challenged, then why aren’t you being more overt about it.”
Former President Obama and thousands of former staffers gathered in Chicago earlier this month to mark the 15th anniversary of his election victory in 2008, and the Obama Foundation’s forum was pegged to the event to explore “issues critical to strengthening democracy.” Obama gave a speech and also an interview to the left-wing podcast “Pod Save America,” hosted by some of his former staffers, that weekend.
In the interview, Obama didn’t mention Biden once, even while discussing threats to democracy; as the Post put it, he “eschewed several opportunities to promote his former running mate’s campaign,” which is facing alarm over surveys showing him behind President Trump. Obama’s speech only mentioned Biden twice and not in the context of the 2024 election.
The report also noted Biden campaign officials gave a standing-room-only, off-site presentation to worried Democrats that same weekend in Chicago about his path to victory in 2024.
The Washington Post reported on the continued efforts of the Biden campaign to assuage alarmed party members and supporters over polling showing him trailing Trump and concerns about one issue, in particular, Biden cannot control: his age. Already the oldest president in American history, Biden turned 81 on November 20, and surveys have repeatedly shown public angst over his viability for the job.