Biden: Obama ‘urged me not to run in election’
Former vice president’s memoirs reveal attempts to discourage him from taking on Hillary Clinton
Joe Biden was discouraged by Barack Obama from running for the presidency to clear the path for Hillary Clinton, the former US vice president has claimed. In his new memoirs, Mr Biden reveals suspicions that Mr Obama gave an “explicit commitment” of support to Mrs Clinton.
BARACK OBAMA repeatedly discouraged Joe Biden from running for the presidency to clear the path for Hillary Clinton, the former US vice president has claimed.
In his new memoirs, published today, Mr Biden says Mr Obama played up the appeal of leaving politics and gave little encouragement about a possible bid for the White House.
He says that Mr Obama’s pollster effectively told him he had “no real path to the nomination” and that running for the presidency would “rock the boat”. Mr Biden even reveals suspicions that Mr Obama gave an “explicit commitment” of support to Mrs Clinton, believing she was best placed to secure his legacy.
Mr Biden did not enter the presidential race because of his son Beau’s death from cancer, clearing the way for Mrs Clinton to clinch the Democratic nomination. Mrs Clinton lost to Donald Trump, ushering in a Republican president who has promised to dismantle key parts of Mr Obama’s legacy.
Mr Biden makes clear he would have run his presidential pitch around protecting the middle classes and believes he would have stood a better chance of defeating Mr Trump.
The revelations, made in the book Promise Me, Dad, mark one of the first time cracks have appeared in the socalled “bromance” between Mr Biden and Mr Obama, who led America for eight years. It comes with Mr Biden openly contemplating whether to run for president in 2020.
In the book, Mr Biden, who served as vice president from 2008 to 2016, emphasises the depth of friendship he built with Mr Obama while in office.
He reveals that Mr Obama shed tears as Mr Biden described his son’s battle with cancer – which is the book’s focus – and even offered to pay for medical support. But Mr Biden details repeated attempts by Mr Obama to work out his intentions for the 2016 presidential race in an apparent attempt to dissuade him to run.
Mr Biden writes: “In January 2015, the president was convinced I could not beat Hillary, and he worried that a long primary fight would split the party and leave the Democratic nominee vulnerable in the general election.”
He describes a private lunch where Mr Obama called the presidency “the most confining thing in the world” and said he was looking forward to leaving politics, adding: “Joe, have you focused on that?” At another lunch between the pair, Mr Biden says he snapped at Mr Obama’s probing, saying: “Look, Mr President, I understand if you’ve made an explicit commitment to Hillary and to Bill Clinton.”
♦ Hate crimes across the United States accelerated in 2016 as the divisive election battle progressed, FBI statistics showed yesterday. Acts motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender rose overall for the second straight year to 6,121 incidents, up 4.6 per cent from 2015. They rose steadily quarter by quarter last year to hit 1,747 in the final three months of 2016.