Former President Barack Obama has “grave concern” that President Joe Biden will lose to former President Donald Trump in November, which has caused him to get involved, The New York Times (NYT) reported.
With just over seven months until the presidential election, Biden has been making regular calls to Obama in an effort to discuss the 2024 race for the White House, according to The NYT. Obama, though, is reportedly making calls of his own to Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients and other top aides to discuss strategy. (RELATED: Could Joe Biden Deliver A MAGA Tidal Wave 8 Years In The Making?)
The former president’s involvement reportedly comes from a place of fear that his former vice president will lose his reelection bid in 2024, an aide told the White House. Obama has “always” been worried about Biden’s reelection chances, the aide told The NYT.
Because of his concerns, Obama is prepared to “eke it out” to help Biden in what some are expecting to be a close election, the aide told The NYT.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama (R) and President Joe Biden rally for Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro at the Liacouras Center on November 5, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)
In the months leading up to the 2024 election, Trump has been dominating hypothetical matchups between him and the president. The former president posted his largest lead over Biden to date at the top of March in either a New York Times/Siena or New York Times/CBS poll. Trump is also leading Biden in several polls in key swing states.
While Biden flails in the polls, the president is also battling a low approval rating and concerns about his fitness for office. Concerns about the 81-year-old’s ability to serve in public office continue after special counsel Robert Hur released a report regarding Biden’s handling of classified documents. (RELATED: Biden Sees No Polling Boost Whatsoever From State Of The Union)
During the interview with the special counsel, Biden forgot when his term as vice president began and ended and when his son Beau had died. Hur justified his decision to not pursue charges against the president in the report, noting that Biden appeared to have a poor memory. Hur also said that if the president were to appear before a jury, he would present himself as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
“We do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate,” Biden’s lawyer Bob Bauer and special counsel Richard Sauber wrote. “The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events.”