Cozying up to Obama, Biden says he backed bin Laden raid
WASHINGTON—Still silent about his presidential ambitions, Vice President Joe Biden cast himself as President Barack Obama’s kindred spirit Tuesday and backtracked on his previous claims to have advised Obama against the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Without mentioning Hillary Rodham Clinton by name, Biden sought to portray his own leadership as more critical to the Obama administration’s successes than that of the Democratic front-runner and former secretary of state. At a forum honoring former Vice President Walter Mondale, Biden offered clear hints at how, if he runs for president, he would contest Clinton’s claim to the president’s legacy and appeal to Democratic voters whose loyalty to Obama remains firm.
“President Obama and I have ideologically had no disagreement,” Biden said. “I mean none. Zero.”
In an unusual reversal, Biden revised his claim to have warned Obama against the bin Laden raid in 2011—a notion Obama himself corroborated in a 2012 presidential debate. As Obama campaigned for re-election, that factoid had the effect of making Obama appear more bullish and prescient than his advisers, but could be used as an argument against Biden’s foreign policy bona fides if he challenges Clinton for the nomination.
Clinton has said she supported the raid from the start, using it as an example on the campaign trail to bolster her credibility as a valued and hardened adviser to Obama on matters of national security. But Biden implicitly contradicted Clinton’s account, insisting that only the defense secretary and CIA chief were fully in favor of the raid.
According to Biden’s account, Obama asked his advisers in the Situation Room whether to proceed with the risky raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Biden said he suggested holding off while the military flew another drone over the compound to gain certainty about bin Laden’s whereabouts, but stopped short of saying “go” or “don’t go” in front of other advisers to avoid undercutting Obama’s ultimate decision.
Instead, Biden said, he waited until he and Obama had left the room and offered his opinion in private: “I told him my opinion. I thought he should go, but follow his own instincts,” Biden said.
Adding another wrinkle to the historical account, Biden said he knew about the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden was hiding in August 2010—long before the “major players” in Obama’s Cabinet learned about it in January or February.