Barack Obama privately warned Pres. Biden to take Trump’s 2024 candidacy seriously

While I’ve grown to love President Biden, there is part of me which still yearns for a third term for Barack Obama. It felt like Obama was really getting the hang of it in his final White House years. Of course, for all of the complaining about Beltway Biden’s fifty years in public office, Biden has turned out to be one of the most shrewdest operators to ever hold the office of the presidency. What I love is that the two men still get along really well, and there’s just so much genuine affection between the current and former presidents. So much so that Obama is a regular in the Biden White House, and he often has a monthly visit to talk to President Biden and his staff. In late June, Obama was in the White House for his monthly meeting when he apparently had some straight talk for the current president:

Former president Barack Obama, at a private lunch with President Biden earlier this summer, voiced concern about Donald Trump’s political strengths — including an intensely loyal following, a Trump-friendly conservative media ecosystem and a polarized country — underlining his worry that Trump could be a more formidable candidate than many Democrats realize.

At the lunch, held in late June at the White House residence, Obama promised to do all he could to help the president get reelected, according to two people familiar with the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversation.

That commitment was a welcome gesture for the White House at a time when Biden is eager to lock down promises of help from top Democrats, among whom Obama is easily the biggest star, for what is likely to be a hard-fought reelection race. The contents of the private conversation have not been previously reported.

Obama was visiting the White House for what Biden aides described as a regular catch-up between the two men who served in the White House together for eight years. During their lunch, Obama made it clear his concerns were not about Biden’s political abilities, but rather a recognition of Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party, according to the people.

The White House said there was no specific agenda for the June 27 meeting, and people briefed on the conversation said the two presidents discussed a range of political, policy and personal matters, including updates about their families. Obama, who remains highly popular among Democrats, is his party’s most sought-after surrogate, although his exact role in the 2024 cycle has not yet been determined. Obama aides say the former president is likely to reprise his playbook from recent elections.

[From WaPo]

There are two big “what ifs” which haunt me from the 2016 election – what if Biden had been the Democratic candidate and what if Obama had been the candidate, as opposed to Hillary Clinton. I love Hillary, I voted for Hillary, I think Hillary would have been a great president. But I do think Biden or Obama would have had different results against Trump in that election. It’s one of the great unknowns, except we did get to find out what would happen when Biden ran against Trump: Democrats reclaiming the Rust Belt, Democrats winning Georgia and Democrats performing really well in the Southwest. Anyway, we’re fifteen f–king months away from the next presidential election – I appreciate that Obama is concerned and I appreciate the fact that he’s already making plans to barnstorm around the country for Biden. I think Obama is like most Democrats: still traumatized by what happened in 2016 and hellbent on making sure it never happens again.

For no reason at all, here’s the video of Obama surprising Biden with the Medal of Freedom in January 2017.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.