THE writing is on the wall for Joe Biden after Barack Obama’s U-turn on his 2024 election run, a former aide for the pair has told The U.S. Sun.
Former President Obama reportedly told his allies that Biden’s “path to victory has greatly diminished” and called for him to “seriously consider his viability of candidacy.”
Obama is the latest Democrat to raise concerns about Joe’s run for reelection.
Biden is also said to be feeling the pressure himself to quit the race due to mounting questions about his age.
Former White House Director of Global Engagement during the Obama administration, Brett Bruen, told The U.S. Sun that it is “only a matter of time” for Joe.
“I think the writing is clearly on the wall and it is only a matter of time before Biden will make the announcement and now it’s a question of how he wants to go out,” he said.
“With each one of these additional steps, with each additional major figure in Democratic politics coming out or speaking out their concerns, it becomes a very unceremonial exit for Biden.”
Brett went on to reveal that, while it is clear that Biden will have to step down, the way he chooses to do so is down to him.
“He ought to be thinking now about his legacy and about the damage he’s doing to the party, to either candidate, because this has been a really selfish exercise that bordered on outright ridiculousness with both the president and some of his advisors and supporters in Congress, trying to justify the unjustifiable,” he continued.
“You need only look at our television screens and watch his labored steps, his struggles to string together coherent thoughts, and it’s painful.
“It’s painful as somebody who worked with him to have to watch a person who you have great admiration for be subjected to that kind of political and personal indignity.”
Barack Obama and Joe Biden relationship timeline
Former president Barack Obama and Joe Biden have a decades-long relationship and Obama has always stood behind Joe - apparently until now. Here are the latest developments in their relationship.
- 2005: Obama arrives on Capitol Hill as a freshman Senator.
- 2007: Biden announces his bid for the 2008 presidential election. Biden eventually drops out and is named Obama’s vice-president.
- 2008: Obama and Biden win the election.
- 2010: Biden and Obama start having weekly lunches after Biden’s son Beau suffered a stroke, per People.
- May 2011: Both Biden and Obama approved the mission which resulted in the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
- May 30, 2015: Obama delivers the eulogy at Beau Biden’s funeral.
- October 2015: Biden holds a press conference in the Rose Garden saying that he is done running for office, Obama stands close by in support of his friend.
- January 2016: Obama offers to pay the mortgage on Biden’s house after the vice president revealed he can’t pay Beau’s hospital bills.
- 2016: Biden becomes angered after it was revealed that Obama was thinking of replacing him with Hilary Clinton.
- January 2017: Obama surprises Biden by presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom calling him “a lion of American history.”
- January 2020: Former president Obama endorses Biden at a drive-in rally in Flint, Michigan.
- January 20, 2021: Obama and Michelle attend Biden’s inauguration.
- June 19, 2024: Obama, appearing at a star-studded fundraiser for the Democratic party, helps Biden off the stage after questions regarding Biden’s health continue to swirl
- June 28, 2024: Obama releases a post on X in support of Biden after his disastrous debate saying the election is “between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”
- June 29, 2024: Obama called in for crisis talks with aid Ron Klain and Democratic fundraiser Dougie Kass as concerns over Joe Biden’s health continue to mount.
- July 18, 2024: Barack Obama tells Democratic allies that he believes that Biden needs to reconsider his candidacy and that his path to victory has become greatly diminished.
Obama’s reported concerns were a U-turn from a statement he issued supporting the current president following a disastrous first debate on CNN.
“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know,” Obama wrote on X the next morning.
“But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit.
“Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November,” he concluded.
The June 27 debate saw the commander-in-chief struggle to finish sentences and fight back against his opponent, Trump.
Democrats and Republicans alike called the debate “a slow-motion car crash” and an “unmitigated disaster.”
However, the next day, Biden held his hands up, telling supporters: “I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to.
“But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth, I know right from wrong.”
The sudden side-step from Obama comes just hours after Biden was forced to cancel his Las Vegas speech after testing positive for Covid.
An update from the White House on Thursday afternoon said that the president is “still experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms.”
“He will continue to conduct the business of the American people,” the president’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, wrote in the statement.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, Donald Trump was named as the official Republican presidential nomination.
The 45th president is set to officially accept the nomination at the Republican National Convention on Thursday evening.
The nomination was determined just two days after the former president survived an assassination attempt at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Following the attack, Brett told The U.S. Sun how the attack could affect the election.
He explained that “both from a sympathetic and symbolic standpoint” the shooting would “benefit” Trump.
“I think we’ve already seen just in the last hour or so how those associated with the campaign, including Don Jr, have accused the “radical Left” of being behind the attack,” he explained on Saturday night.
“I think there is a real danger here that we could see retaliatory acts of violence and then the Trump campaign, those in the MAGA movement, really ought to reflect and reassess their rhetoric so as not to incite more attacks or violence.”
Brett added that the attack “ought to be a pivotal point” for Americans to realize that “politics is geared into a really dangerous spot.”
“The combustible style of communications that we employ both on the Left and the Right is what unfortunately leads individuals to act out, in some cases, in violent ways.”
On the evening of the shooting, Brett explained how it could encourage Democrats to take a closer look at who their party’s presidential nomination was.
“I think on the Biden campaign side, it’s clear they have to take a step back,” he said on Saturday. “They hold off their external communications, pulling down their ads.”
“And they too will have to determine how best to proceed in what is a fairly unprecedented political environment in which you have one candidate that has survived an assassination attempt, who will be continuing their campaign and another who is under enormous pressure to drop out.
“Whether or not the effect of this is that Trump ends up moving ahead in the polls and that leads more Democrats to realize that a change is needed at the top of the ticket remains to be seen but it definitely is in the realm of possibility at this point,” he concluded.