Joe Biden — who was believed to be very close to Barack Obama — may not be on friendly terms with the former president as, according to White House insiders, the incumbent commander-in-chief compares himself with his erstwhile boss by referring to the current policies of his administration.
The oldest president in US history, Biden, also claimed to be not speaking as frequently as it was believed, Axios reported citing close aides.
However, a Washington Post report indicated that Biden speaks more often with former President Bill Clinton than Obama.
While speaking about achievements, the 81-year-old President claimed to have said: “Obama would be jealous.”
The feelings about Obama surfaced as a transcript of Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur was made public in which the President told him that “it had been a wounding experience of Obama favouring Hillary Clinton over him to be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016.”
Biden was reported as saying: “He just thought that [Clinton] had a better shot of winning the presidency than I did.”
According to his close aides, Biden believed that Donald Trump would have been beaten if he had run in 2016.
The White House spokesperson told Axios: “President Biden does not make such comments in private. As President Biden has said, President Obama is family to him,” adding that he “talks to both former President Obama and President Clinton often.”
The outlet also reported another aide as saying: “The Obama people thought Biden would suck as president. They didn’t think he’d be organised enough to execute.”
There has been an overlap between the teams of him and Biden’s. But there has been a contention. “We do have too many Obama people who don’t care about Joe Biden. It’s about them,” a former White House official said.
Biden is running for the White House once again likely facing former President Donald Trump in November 2024. Polls showed that approval ratings of Biden plunged with the former president leading.
