As things look worse and worse for President Joe Biden and his chances at re-election in 2024, President Barack Obama appears to be stepping in to help the current president shore up his support among voters and rake in donor dollars to compete with former President Donald Trump’s huge post-conviction fundraising success.
Such an attempt to help President Biden came in mid-June, when former President Obama appeared alongside President Biden at a star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles meant to help Biden rake in some cash from the wealthy denizens of LA. It helped with that, as Biden raised $30 million from donors at the event, but also backfired to some degree, as embarrassing videos of Biden emerged from the event.
During the appearance, Obama tried to paint Biden as his capable successor, describing the presidency as a “relay race” in which he had handed the baton to Biden, saying, “Well, the — the way —. I’ve talked about this before. I’ve talked about this before. At its best, the presidency is a relay race. Right? You take the baton and you run the race. And so, we get the Affordable Care Act started.”
He continued, speaking about Obamacare as a good thing and Biden as helping further it, saying, “But we knew at the time that even though 20 million people were getting health insurance from it who didn’t have it before, there were still some people who were having trouble affording it because we couldn’t fund all the subsidies that a lot of people needed. Joe comes in, boosts some of the subsidies. That means millions more people are able to access healthcare that’s affordable — and they can have some security.”
He then spoke about Biden as having advanced his goal of “clean energy,” saying, “On climate change. We fund clean energy at record levels when we first came into office — Joe and I together. We move forward, in terms of making sure that fuel efficiency standards on — on cars have changed. We get the Paris Accords done. But that’s not enough to deal with the size and scope of the challenges that we face. Joe comes in, makes historic investments in clean energy.”
And, claiming that he is proud of what Biden has managed to accomplish, further painting the Biden Administration as essentially a third Obama term, he said, “So, the — I take great pride in what the Biden administration has accomplished. And it’s a reminder that we don’t have to just vote against something in this election. We have somebody to worry about. And there’s a whole agenda that we should be concerned about.”
Concluding that part of the speech, Obama said that Biden has done “extraordinary work,” saying, “But we can take pride in affirming the extraordinary work that Joe has done. And we want to make sure that we build on that and then pass it on to the next president rather than have a president who wants to reverse the progress that has been made.”
Watch Obama and Biden at the event here:
Obama’s support for Biden comes as Biden Campaign insiders warn that the campaign is going poorly and headed in an unproductive direction, sounding the alarm bells on the “scary situation.” It remains to be seen, however, if Obama can buoy the Biden trainwreck enough to help out.
"*" indicates required fields