Charlie Spiering
BreitbartWed, 14 Oct 2020 00:00 UTC
© Getty ImagesFormer President Barack Obama • Former VP Joe Biden
Former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign will call up former President Barack Obama to take on President Donald Trump in the final weeks before the election, according to reports.
CNN
cited "Democratic officials" who say
Obama will focus on early voting states such as Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin. ABC News
cited an aide to Obama confirming "President Obama plans to hit the trail soon, in addition to all the other activities he's undertaken all year in support of electing VP Biden. As he's said, we all have to do everything we can to win on November 3."
Biden
told reporters "He's doing enough for our campaign. He'll be out on the trail and he's doing well." The Biden campaign believes Obama can help boost turnout among black men, Latinos, and young voters, according to CNN.
Obama has repeatedly used his social media platform in 2020 to urge his followers to make a plan to vote in the November election.
Obama
emerged from retirement in 2018 to campaign for select Democrats, including Democrat candidate for Georgia governor Stacey Abrams who lost to Republican candidate Brian Kemp. The former president also campaigned for Florida Democrat candidate for governor Andrew Gillum who lost to Ron DeSantis.
Comment: Others are scratching their heads, wondering where's Obama?
There are now fewer than three weeks to go before Election Day, and a handful of states — as usual — will decide the victor on Nov. 3 (or maybe weeks later). But Obama isn't in Wisconsin or Michigan or Pennsylvania or Ohio or Florida, stumping for his former vice president Joe Biden.
His absence is so conspicuous that Team Biden felt the need to address the issue on Tuesday. Democratic National Committee (DNC) released a video showing Obama encouraging voters to "make a plan" to vote this year.
Back in April 2019, when Biden announced he would be running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama issued a statement through spokeswoman Katie Hill.
"President Obama has long said that selecting Joe Biden as his running mate in 2008 was one of the best decisions he ever made. He relied on the Vice President's knowledge, insight, and judgment throughout both campaigns and the entire presidency. The two forged a special bond over the last 10 years and remain close today."
But the statement was notably lacking a formal endorsement.
At the time, Biden said he had personally asked Obama not to issue an endorsement. "I asked President Obama not to endorse, and he doesn't want to. Listen, we should — whoever wins this nomination should win it on their own merits," he said when asked by reporters why Obama had not endorsed him.
President Trump in June claimed that it's "rather a big secret" why former president Barack Obama has not come out and endorsed his vice president, Joe Biden. President Trump taunted in an interview with The Hill outside the Oval Office:
"How he doesn't get President Obama to endorse him — there has to be some reason why he's not endorsing him. He was the vice president. They seem to have gotten along. And how President Obama's not endorsing him is rather a big secret. Then he goes and lies and said, 'I asked the president not to endorse me.' Give me a break."
The former vice president had cast his candidacy as, essentially, a third term of the Obama administration, pledging to pick up where his former boss left off. But then it was revealed that Obama quietly urged him not to run.
The New York Times wrote in a piece headlined: "Obama's and Biden's Relationship Looks Rosy. It Wasn't Always That Simple."
"The two men spoke at least a half dozen times before Mr. Biden decided to run, and Mr. Obama took pains to cast his doubts about the campaign in personal terms. "'You don't have to do this, Joe, you really don't,' Mr. Obama told Mr. Biden earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the exchange."
All that has led to questions as to whether Obama really wants Biden to win the White House.
"Sleepy Joe," as Trump likes to call Biden, certainly hopes the charismatic Obama will take to the road to help him, but the 44th president hasn't been all that helpful so far, so only time will tell if he does.
See also:
Perhaps a prime reason for Obama-absentia, check out:
Smoking-gun email in forgotten laptop reveals Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad
Comment: Others are scratching their heads, wondering where's Obama? See also:
Smoking-gun email in forgotten laptop reveals Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad