Decryption | Even you, Barack?

(New York) On June 8, 2019, Joe Biden celebrated Best Friends Day, a uniquely American holiday, by posting on his Twitter account a photo of two braided bracelets featuring his and Barack Obama’s first names. Above the photo, he added this message: “Happy #BestFriendsDay to my friend Barack.”

This tweet did not only provoke tender reactions, far from it.

“He’s such a good friend that he won’t support you for president,” comedian and host Tim Young quipped of Joe Biden, who launched his third presidential campaign in April of that year.

But the most cutting reaction was that of David Axelrod, former strategist for Barack Obama: “It’s a joke, isn’t it?”

The reaction was revealing in more ways than one. In Washington, many never believed in the “bromance” between Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the quasi-fraternal friendship that supposedly united two beings so different on a personal level.

And, as David Axelrod’s questioning demonstrated, the former advisers of the 44^e Presidents have always had difficulty hiding their doubts, even their condescension, towards the 46^e.

Does Barack Obama himself share these feelings? Despite his message of June 8, 2019, Joe Biden seems to be convinced of this today. Because, according to several American media outlets, he suspected his “friend” Barack of playing Brutus to keep him out of the race for the White House.

This drama is all the more Shakespearean as the two men experienced intense moments together, notably after the death of Beau Biden in May 2015. Barack Obama was invited to deliver the funeral oration for Joe Biden’s eldest son, who was destined for a great political future.

He then recalled the Biden “rule”: “If you have to ask for help, it’s too late.”

A personal slap

Now, this wouldn’t be the first time Barack Obama has ruled out Joe Biden from a White House race. In the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign, the 44^e The president signaled in many ways his preference for Hillary Clinton, whose personality was closer to his own. He notably suggested to his vice president that he needed to grieve before considering returning to the political arena.

And he sent David Plouffe, one of his most influential advisers, to explain to him, with polls to back it up, that his candidacy would divide the moderate vote and allow Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic nomination.

The day he announced his support for his former secretary of state, Barack Obama was particularly complimentary. “I don’t think there’s ever been anyone more qualified to hold [la présidence] “, he said.

Joe Biden, who had served as vice president for seven years and chaired two of the Senate’s most important committees, took the compliment to Hillary Clinton as a personal slap in the face. And his advisers remembered it four years later, when Barack Obama finally gave his former vice president an endorsement that seemed far less flattering or enthusiastic.

In the aftermath of Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in the Atlanta debate, Barack Obama quickly came to his aid. “Bad debates happen. Trust me, I know,” he wrote on X, referring to his own underperformance in his first televised debate against Mitt Romney in 2012.

For the good of the party

Regardless, Joe Biden eventually concluded that Barack Obama was plotting against him. On July 11, MSNBC host and presidential confidant Joe Scarborough summed it up for the show’s loyal viewers this way: Morning Joe : “The Joe Biden campaign and many Democratic officials are convinced that Barack Obama is working quietly behind the scenes to orchestrate all of this. And if Joe Biden believes that, it’s not going to take him out of the race any faster.”

Joe Scarborough was not only referring to the column published the day before in the New York Times under the signature of actor George Clooney calling on Joe Biden to withdraw from the race for the White House.

“All this” also included the role played by the animators of Pod Save Americaone of the most popular political podcasts in the United States, who called for Joe Biden to step down the day after the Atlanta debate. All four of these hosts – Dan Pfeiffer, Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor – were former members of the Obama administration.

Added to this quartet is of course David Axelrod, who had encouraged Joe Biden to give up a second term as early as 2023. Barack Obama’s former strategist believed at the time that the president’s advanced age and limited communication skills represented major obstacles to his re-election. He did not yet know that the president would show more obvious signs of physical and cognitive decline a year later.

Joe Biden’s idea that Barack Obama was pulling the strings may have been paranoid. But there’s no doubt that the former president agreed with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Democrats stood to lose everything in November—the White House, the Senate, and the House—if Joe Biden remained the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

And Barack Obama was willing to ignore the Biden “rule” to avoid this fate for his country. Which did not prevent him from paying tribute to his former right-hand man after the announcement of his withdrawal.

“Joe Biden has been one of America’s most important presidents, and a dear friend and partner to me. Today, we were also reminded – once again – that he is a patriot of the first order,” he wrote in the opening of a statement published on the Medium website.