Barack Obama scared of Trump’s return in 2024, but Joe Biden ignores his warning
Days after former president Barack Obama raised concerns over the structure of Biden’s re-election campaign, the Biden team on Sunday defended its approach, stressing that “we’re united in the fact that we have to do everything we can to push back on Donald Trump”.
As per the report published by the Washington Post, Obama shared his worries with Biden over a December lunch at White House. Obama told Biden that he needed to empower individuals who were already at the campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, or that it was crucial to have more senior decision-makers there.
Reminding Biden of his own campaign strategy, Obama raised apprehension regarding the viability of the former president Trump as a political contender in 2024 and even offered counsel from his former campaign aides.
Will the Biden campaign follow Obama’s advice?
When asked specifically whether the campaign intends to make any structural changes on Obama’s advice, Quentin Fulks, President Biden’s primary deputy campaign manager, remained silent in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press”. He added that although the campaign has been “awake” since April, Americans have only recently begun to pay attention.
He further stressed that Biden and Obama share the view that Trump must be defeated.
“We’re going to continue to do what we need to do in order to be competitive and in order to make sure we’re growing the infrastructure that we need to win. President Obama and President Biden talk frequently, as do the campaign and former operatives from President Biden’s administration and his campaign,” Fulks said.
“But the one thing is that we’re both aligned on the fact that we have to push back on MAGA extremists and the threat that they pose to freedom and democracy. And so we’re focused on doing just that,” he added.
Fulks further said that Biden has been very clear that the experience he received as vice president under Obama has been “critical to the experience that he brings to the job and what he’s been able to accomplish”.
Biden reportedly got irritated over advice to ramp up his campaign strategy
Last year, Obama’s longtime advisor Axelrod said that he also recommended Biden to intensify his campaign tactics. Biden apparently got “irritated”, and as a result, Axelrod declared he would “live with the fact that the president is unhappy with me,” Washington Post reported.
“Again, my feeling is: either get out or get going,” Axelrod said, implying that the president would be well to think about withdrawing from the race due to his age.