WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama has a delicate balance to strike: how to handle the growing opposition to President Joe Biden continue his campaign with his loyalty to his former running mate.
In recent days, Obama has taken calls from congressional leaders, Democratic governors and major donors, asking shared their discomfort on the prospects of Biden’s campaign after his disastrous performance during the June 27 debate against his predecessor, Donald Trump.
But while Obama has listened to Democrats’ concerns, he has insisted that the decision to stay in the race rests solely with Biden, according to several insiders who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.
Obama is navigating the most delicate political moment for Democrats since the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, with much higher stakes. It is a moment when Obama must balance his role as party elder and honest broker for Democrats seeking his advice while avoiding being seen as a traitor to his former vice president.
“President Obama needs and wants to play the role of statesman, above the political battles that past presidents have traditionally played,” said Matt Bennett, who served as an aide to Vice President Al Gore and is now an executive vice president at the Democratic-leaning group Third Way. “He also wants to remain a credible sounding board for President Biden. If he takes a public position, that’s it.”
Obama’s relationship with Biden began as a political marriage of convenience when he picked the veteran Delaware senator as his vice president in 2008. The two were not close while serving in the Senate.
It was a selection made partly to assuage concerns about Obama’s relative inexperience and to make white Democrats more comfortable casting their votes for a black politician with less than four years in the Senate. The pragmatic relationship eventually developed into a genuine partnership and friendship.
Julian Castro, who served as Housing and Urban Development secretary under Obama, said he was not privy to Obama’s private conversations about Biden but called it crucial that “respected, trusted elders within the party” speak clearly to Biden about the headwinds Democrats face if he stays in the race.
“Whether it’s President Obama, former President Clinton or Secretary Clinton, I think their most important role right now is to make sure we have a successful November,” said Castro, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination against Biden in 2020 and has recently called on him to end his current candidacy.
Obama’s concerns surfaced after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi presented Biden with polls that she said showed he was unlikely to beat Trump, while influential Democrats, including the Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer and leader of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives Hakeem Jeffrieshave also signaled concerns about Biden’s political viability.
Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of Democrats nationwide say Biden should step aside and let his party nominate another candidate, according to an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll published this week. That undermines Biden’s post-debate claim that “average Democrats” still support him, even as some “big names” turn against him.
Biden is leaning on his longtime staff as he weighs whether to bow to pressure to step aside, continuing to publicly insist that he is the Democrat best positioned to defeat Trump.
Campaign officials said Biden was even more determined to stay in the race as calls for his departure grew. But Biden also had time to reconsider — a brief window that was apparently exploited by party leaders trying to plan for his exit.
Insiders say Obama’s stance on Biden is bigger than his own. Protecting Biden and his legacy is his biggest concern, they say. He has largely remained silent about Biden’s political decline in public.
Insiders say the former president has been protective of Biden in talks with allies and does not believe it would be productive to take a stronger stance, publicly or even privately.
The former president is also aware of the ongoing tensions in Biden’s political circle, as some in Obama’s top staff urged Biden not to run in the 2016 presidential election when he was vice president.
In his memoir “Promise Me, Dad,” Biden wrote about a 2015 lunch with Obama, just months after his son Beau died of cancer, during which they discussed the possibility of running for president in 2016.
Obama, Biden recalled, asked if he would enter the race. Biden said he told Obama he wasn’t ready to make a decision, but if he did decide to enter the race, he would do so in time to be viable.
“The president was not encouraging,” Biden wrote.
Obama also urged Biden, as he contemplated the 2016 race, to sit down with David Plouffe, an architect of Obama’s winning 2008 campaign. Plouffe made it clear to Biden that he would face an uphill battle against Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the eventual Democratic nominee in that election, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Since last month’s disastrous debate performance, more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers have called on Biden to resign. He has also faced sharp criticism from prominent Obama White House alumni, including a group of senior aides who host the popular Pod Save America podcast and former Obama senior adviser and CNN analyst David Axelrod.
“There have always been two Joe Bidens. The empathetic, decent, big-hearted leader, forged in loss and grief, finding the good in his friends and his opponents, in love with America, arms wide open and room for everyone,” Jon Lovett, a former Obama speechwriter and co-host of Pod Save America, wrote last week on the social media site X. “And then there’s the braggart with a chip on his shoulder, stubborn, something to prove, his fellow senators rolling their eyes as the finger gets louder and the stories get longer. Statesman and politician, hero and fool.”
In an interview with BET this week, Biden insisted he has plenty of time to get his campaign in order. On Thursday, the campaign said Biden was committed to his re-election bid and would be the Democratic nominee.
Obama’s concerns come at a time when many Democrats believe time is running out to get Biden out of the race, with the Democratic National Convention just weeks away.
But Biden and Obama, as they try to navigate this period, appear bewildered by the pressures of legacy and tradition, said Edward Frantz, a presidential historian at the University of Indianapolis.
Obama, Frantz said, has shown himself to be a traditionalist in his nearly eight years out of office. He has largely maintained the post-presidential tradition of his predecessors, who preferred not to get too involved in politics.
Biden, meanwhile, seems well aware that history often does not look favorably on one-term presidencies, Frantz said.
“Biden and Obama both have a legacy in mind, and they have to balance that with their duty to the party and the country,” Frantz said. “To willfully step away? Few have done that.”
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AP journalists Lisa Mascaro and Mike Balsamo contributed to this report.