President Joe Biden reportedly compares himself and his presidency to former President Barack Obama behind closed doors, two aides familiar with the president’s comments told Axios.
Biden often rivals the former president, measuring his actions and success against Obama, two aides familiar with the president’s comments told Axios. The president’s reported tendency to compare himself to Obama has guided how he has governed situations such as the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, the Israel-Hamas war and Congress, Axios reported.
“Obama would be jealous,” Biden has previously said when discussing accomplishments, two aides familiar with the comments told Axios.
Biden’s relationship with Obama came up during his interview with special counsel Robert Hur as a part of an investigation into his handling of classified documents, Axios reported. The president detailed Obama’s favor for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 election, according to a transcript of the Hur interview.
“A lot of people … were encouraging me to run in this period, except the president … He just thought that [Clinton] had a better shot of winning the presidency than I did,” Biden said during his interview with Hur.
President Joe Biden (L) and former U.S. President Barack Obama (R) embrace on stage during a 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)
Throughout his time as president, Biden has reportedly spoken more with former President Bill Clinton than with Obama, according to the Washington Post.
“President Biden does not make such comments in private. As President Biden has said, President Obama is family to him,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Axios, adding that the president speaks to both Obama and Clinton often.
Ahead of Biden’s presidency, former aides to the president said that Obama staffers reportedly thought Biden’s presidency would be a failure. Other longtime aides to the president reportedly have thought Obama and his staff did not fully appreciate how Biden handled foreign policy and Congress.
“The Obama people thought Biden would suck as president. They didn’t think he’d be organized enough to execute,” a former Biden aide told Axios.
“We do have too many Obama people who don’t care about Joe Biden. It’s about them,” another former White House official told Axios.
Ahead of the 2024 election, Biden is trailing former President Donald Trump in the polls, facing flailing approval ratings and concerns about his age. Following his State of the Union address, which the campaign was reportedly planning to use a reset, the president has seen no bump in the polls or his popularity. (RELATED: Biden Brushes Off Age Fears After Seth Meyers Tells Him ‘It’s A Real Concern For American Voters’)
“We recognize that the actual level of drama in this White House is insufficient to meet some reporting quotas, but President Biden does not make such comments in private. As President Biden has said, President Obama is family to him. In addition to their personal bond, they agree overwhelmingly on the issues facing the country, including building an economy that works from the bottom-up and middle-out, protecting our critical freedoms, and opposing attacks on our democracy,” Bates said in a statement to the Daily Caller.
“There are no stronger supporters of President Biden’s leadership and agenda than President Obama, his team, and alumni of the Obama-Biden Administration – many of whom serve during this presidency. And the President talks to both former President Obama and President Clinton often,” he said.