Obama looms large in Democratic debate over Biden

One name has loomed above all as Democrats opposed to President Biden being their party’s nominee debate how to convince him to step aside: Former President Obama. 

But so far, with the exception of a short post two weeks ago on X, Obama has kept his thoughts to himself.

His relative silence, even as he was seen on camera this week giving hugs to LeBron James, Dawn Staley and other basketball stars, has been particularly notable given the noise about Biden from many of his former advisers, like political strategist David Axelrod, and starry acquaintances, such as Oscar winner George Clooney.

Privately, a source familiar said the president has expressed concern about the state of the race and Biden's chances of winning as things stood late last week.

Obama is keenly aware, the source said, of the obstacles confronting Biden. He has also taken calls from senior Democrats including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as CNN reported on Thursday, but isn't convinced of the right approach going forward.

Others say Obama wouldn’t be put into the position of having a word with Biden on a potential exit alone, in any event. If that happened, they say it would be a group intervention with the likes of Pelosi or Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), two of Biden's peers.

It isn't in Obama’s nature, say sources who know the president, to make a definitive declaration, particularly when it comes to his vice president. 

“The Obamas are so careful about where they spend any kind of capital. When they put their name on something, they only do it on sure bets,” one source said. “What’s Obama good at? It’s being a cipher and letting people see themselves in him. The hardest thing in the world is to put their name on anything. That’s strategic and that carries through here.” 

After Clooney wrote an op-ed for The New York Times this week urging Biden to withdraw from the race, Politico reported that the actor gave Obama a heads up and that the former president didn’t seek to dissuade him. 

Obama is not in regular contact with many of the former aides who have been the loudest about Biden, such as Axelrod and the hosts of the popular “Pod Save America.”

“First of all, if any of those people have spoken to 44 on the phone in the last few years, I’d be ----ing blown away,” one former aide said. "It’s not like any of them are speaking for him, and he wouldn’t be telling them what to say anyway.” 

Another source familiar with Obama's thinking said he's not policing what his former aides do and would wave people off the perception that he has any control over them.

Without question, Obama is Biden's biggest surrogate, helping to raise at least $65 million for his former vice president. The two have served as sounding boards for one another at critical moments, a source said.  

Their relationship has had some tense moments, too. Most notably, Obama and his top aides discouraged Biden in 2015 from running against Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary. 

In his book "Promise Me Dad," Biden wrote about having lunch in 2015 with Obama at the White House that summer, just months after his son Beau died of cancer. Obama asked Biden if he was going to enter the race. 

“Mr. President, I’m not ready to make up my mind,” Biden told Obama at the time. “I’m taking it one day at a time. If we do decide to go, we’ll decide in time to be viable.” 

But Biden wrote, “The president was not encouraging.” 

Days later, even as Biden considered himself a stronger candidate than Clinton, particularly in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the three states that ultimately put Donald Trump on top, “a couple of people on President Obama’s political team were telling us this race just wasn’t winnable for me. 

“There was usually a preamble: We’re very protective of the vice president. We don’t want to see Joe get hurt. We can only imagine what he’s going through right now,” Biden wrote in his book. “But they were not subtle. They asked [senior Biden advisers] Steve [Ricchetti] and Mike [Donilon[ to consider the incredible historical forces around Barack Obama in 2008, when he ran against the Clinton machine and still just barely won. And if she almost beat us, they implied, she will definitely beat you.” 

A source familiar with Obama's thinking said the former president was focused on Biden's grief at the time and was only serving as a sounding board. 

During a New York fundraiser in 2019, one Democratic donor recalled that Obama was asked about Biden and the perception of age around his candidacy. 

“He wasn’t squarely going to say Biden is too old, and he didn’t, but he said something to the effect of, it’s a huge job, and I’m not sure I would be fit to do it now. It would take everything out of me,” the donor recalled. 

During the 2020 cycle, Obama wasn’t shy about expressing the worries he had about the Biden campaign. He was concerned that Biden would embarrass himself on the trail with gaffes and under the scrutiny of the press and he called a meeting with Biden’s aides in his Washington office to get a briefing of sorts on the campaign. 

Aides in both camps say the Obama-Biden relationship remains strong, so much that Biden even sought some counsel from the former president after last month's disastrous debate, a source said. Obama likes to be a gut check and friend to Biden, and their conversations sometimes get deep and philosophical. 

At the end of his book, Biden writes about a moment in 2015 when Obama asked him, “Joe, how do you want to spend the rest of your life?”

It was a question that Biden said still stuck with him two years later as he was writing his book. 

Sources who spoke to The Hill for this story said it was inconceivable, however, to think that Obama would on his own try to push Biden out of the race.

“He’s just not gonna do that,” the former aide said of Obama. “The lord almighty is the mirror for Joe Biden. He’s not going to leave this race unless he wants to and I don’t think anyone is going to convince him otherwise.”