WASHINGTON– Three people familiar with the June meeting confirmed to NBC News that former President Barack Obama made it clear to his former running mate that he was committed to doing whatever it takes to help his re-election.
Two sources said that during the visit, which included a private lunch, the two leaders discussed how much was at stake in 2024, particularly because to the continued strength of former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post was the first to disclose that Obama had raised concerns about Trump’s strengths over the private lunch. These concerns included Trump’s support from his base, favourable coverage of him by conservative outlets, and a politically divided electorate. There was a lack of additional information from those familiar with the conference.
A spokeswoman for Obama, Eric Schultz, told NBC News, “Just as he constantly has, President Obama anticipates supporting Democrats up and down the tally next fall, and no race has larger stakes than President Biden’s re-election.”
The principle of driving effect will be central to our approach. To this end, we’ve dedicated a lot of energy to exploring new channels of communication, notably apps that can be linked to direct citizen mobilisation or volunteer activations. Since “moving the needle” is the ultimate goal, Schultz and I are very strategic about how we spend our time.
Several Democratic strategists have argued that the president may be in the best position to win re-election in a rematch against Trump, relative to other potential GOP candidates, which may have prompted the conversation between Biden and Obama.
Authorities in both camps made clear on the day of Obama’s June check out from the White House that they wanted to portray the meeting as just “another check-in discussion,” as reported by NBC News. After the successful resolution of the debt ceiling crisis, Biden and Obama had a phone conversation only a few weeks before.
At the June lunch, politics were clearly on the agenda. Obama and Biden recorded several films in the White House that were used to fundraise for Biden’s re-election campaign in the final days before the quarterly report was due. Our democracy is at stake tonight,” Bush said in an Obama-signed fundraising email. There is a dangerous strand of anti-democratic thought in the population. We have to fight back against it.
Mike Memoli
Mike Memoli is a correspondent at NBC News.
Kristen Welker
NBC News’ main White House correspondent is Kristen Welker.