(CNN) — Barack Obama visited his former Vice President Joe Biden in the family dining room of the White House last Friday. The atmosphere was cheerful as the pair exchanged jokes, and the meeting served as a mini-reunion for staff members of the two presidents, many of whom knew each other from the Obama White House.
However, the reunion wasn’t just about two old friends catching up.
Obama has made it clear to aides in recent months that he believes Biden’s looming rematch with Donald Trump in November will be incredibly close, and that the 2024 election marks a moment when “it will be all hands on deck.” “, people familiar with him told CNN. As such, his return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue last week was largely a working visit.
Biden and Obama, along with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, participated in an organizational call at the White House residence to announce the 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). “We have an opportunity to do more, but that will only happen when we send Joe and Kamala back to the White House in November,” Obama said in the video. “So, we have to keep working.”
Off camera, Obama told Biden he thought the president’s State of the Union remarks earlier this month had been effective and that progress was being made, according to people familiar with the conversation. Obama also emphasized to Biden that he believes health care will be a politically powerful and important issue in the upcoming election.
The campaign also recorded other material starring the two presidents that they plan to release next week, sources said.
According to sources, Obama and Biden speak regularly and are in direct contact with several senior White House officials, including Jeff Zients, Biden’s chief of staff who worked in the former President Obama administration.
The former president has occasionally lent his hand to Biden since announcing the incumbent’s re-election last year, notably through public fundraising appeals and in quiet conversations in hopes of allaying concerns among some Democrats that they want Biden to seek another term. His commitment to Biden’s campaign is expected to intensify as the general election gathers momentum, and his advisers said he has agreed to several campaigns before November as he works to help rebuild Biden’s winning coalition from 2020.
Obama’s biggest embrace of Biden’s re-election effort will come Thursday at a star-studded Manhattan fundraising event featuring Biden, Obama and former President Bill Clinton. The three presidents will sit down for an unusual conversation, moderated by Stephen Colbert.
It will hardly be a regular meeting of the Presidents Club, and when Clinton and Obama take the stage at Radio City Music Hall, their appearance will highlight an extraordinary moment in American history when a sitting president is locked in a bitter battle to fend off his predecessor. By returning to the White House.
“Nobody can speak better for disillusioned Democrats than President Obama,” a senior strategist who worked closely with Obama and Biden told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity about the campaign. “But there are limits to what Obama can do. The onus is still on President Biden to win this race.
According to the campaign, the sold-out event this Thursday night will feature numerous celebrities and artists including Queen Latifah, Lizo, Cynthia Erivo, Mindy Kaling, Ben Platt and Lea Michele. The evening will be overseen by high-profile producers Jordan Roth and Alex Timbers, and tickets will range in price from $225 to $500,000.
Taking advantage of a rare joint appearance by Biden and his two predecessors, the campaign offers some high-value guests the opportunity to have their photos taken with the three presidents by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz.
In his role as president, Biden has also been in frequent contact with Clinton, sources familiar with the matter say. Steve Ricchetti, a senior adviser to Biden who worked in the Clinton White House, is also in regular contact with his former boss. Advice and consultations regarding the 2024 elections are part of all talks, these people said.
As one of the most prominent national Democrats, Obama’s appeal and popularity remain undeniable. Campaign fundraising efforts involving former presidents have raised more than $15 million so far this cycle, with “Meet the Presidents” contests in which Biden and Obama alone have raised nearly US$3 million, according to the campaign.
Over the next seven months, Obama will focus his attention on fundraising appeals and helping to galvanize young Americans, particularly black and Latino voters, who campaign advisers see as a weak point in Obama’s candidacy. Biden.
Obama has no plans to attack aggressively until the fall, when early voting begins, following the pattern he has adopted since leaving office. Saving the former president until late in the race — when voters are paying the most attention — is how Obama and his advisers believe he can be most effective.
No firm travel plans have been made yet, but the former president is likely to visit college campuses in the fall as well as major cities in battleground states, his advisers said.
Obama has not been shy about raising concerns about Israel’s war in Gaza, which has become one of Biden’s biggest challenges in both foreign policy and domestic policy. That, along with reproductive rights, will be the main focus of Obama’s speech to voters.
Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager who has been a close adviser to Biden’s re-election campaign, told CNN that his former boss plans to do everything possible to help Biden win a second term in the White House. That mission, Messina said, has become significantly more urgent with Trump’s emergence as the presumptive Republican nominee.
“President Obama once told me that every president is a reflection of the previous president, and he’s right,” Messina said. “Trump was the complete opposite of Obama and Biden is the complete opposite of Trump. Being president of the United States means you are part of a small club; “there is no other group of people whose warning signs about the direct threat of Donald Trump should be taken more seriously.”
A senior Biden adviser told CNN that Obama has been clear about his willingness to help his former vice president’s re-election efforts.
“He has been generous with his time and has made it very clear that he is fully involved in the campaign,” the adviser said.
