Politics

REPORT: Barack Obama To Endorse Joe Biden For President

WASHINGTON - JANUARY 30: President of the United States Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden (son of Joe Biden) talk during a college basketball game between Georgetown Hoyas and the Duke Blue Devils on January 30, 2010 at the Verizon Center in Washington DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
Anders Hagstrom White House Correspondent
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Former President Barack Obama will endorse former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday, according to CNN.

Obama’s endorsement will reportedly come via a produced video sometime Tuesday. Obama had proven unwilling to endorse Biden throughout the Democratic primary, with Biden going so far as to say he’d asked the former president not to endorse him. (RELATED: Trump Tweets ‘Dark Knight’-Themed Re-Election Video)

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 12: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Barack Obama (R) presents the Medal of Freedom to Vice-President Joe Biden during an event in the State Dinning room of the White House, January 12, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) presents the Medal of Freedom to Vice-President Joe Biden during an event in the State Dinning room of the White House, January 12, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

“The vice president actually asked the president not to endorse,” Biden campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in April 2019. “He wanted to make the case. He is running in this race because he believes we need to restore the soul of this nation, we need to rebuild the backbone of America, and that we need to unify and come together.” (RELATED: All 50 States Now Under Disaster Declarations After Trump Adds Wyoming)

Biden secured the presumptive nominee slot over Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders after Sanders dropped out in early April. Biden is now unopposed.

President Donald Trump’s campaign was quick to begin messaging around the endorsement, which came one day after Sanders himself endorsed Biden.

“Barack Obama spent much of the last five years urging Joe Biden not to run for president out of fear that he would embarrass himself,” Trump Campaign Manager Brad Parscale said in a statement. “Now that Biden is the only candidate left in the Democrat field, Obama has no other choice but to support him. Even Bernie Sanders beat him to it. Obama was right in the first place: Biden is a bad candidate who will embarrass himself and his party. President Trump will destroy him.”