Barack Obama was “jealous” that the media portrayed his successor and former Vice President Joe Biden’s administration as “more transformational” than his, a bombshell excerpt from a new book suggested Monday.
The popular Democrat helped Biden win the White House in 2020 over former President Donald Trump, capitalizing on the close friendship they were known for during Obama’s years in office.
But it was reportedly, at least at the time, a “political fable.”
The ex-president actually had “complicated feelings” about his former vice president’s presidential campaign, according to the forthcoming book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future by New York Times journalists Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns.
The two spoke only “occasionally” early in Biden’s tenure in the White House, though Obama appeared to confide in another Democrat in Washington – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Nancy Pelosi, who spoke regularly with the former president, emerged from her discussions with Obama during this period with a sober diagnosis,” reads an excerpt obtained by Fox News.
‘She told a friend, ‘Obama is jealous of Biden’.”
Former President Barack Obama had “complicated feelings” about his former Vice President Joe Biden becoming president in 2020, a forthcoming report on the start of Biden’s presidency has said
has reached out to Pelosi’s office for comment.
Obama’s rare conversations with Biden were “hardly the stuff of the close brotherhood that both men sold to the country as a light-hearted political fable,” the book says.
Biden even gave his own assessment of the fallout, as quoted by an adviser.
“I am confident that Barack will not be happy with the coverage of this administration as it is more transformative than his,” the book states, Biden told them.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly spoke to Obama “regularly” and said he was “jealous” of Biden’s White House
At the time, the new leader was praised for assembling the most diverse presidential cabinet in American history and for an unprecedented focus on inclusion up to the highest echelons of his administration.
The comments in the book by Democratic National Committee chairperson Donna Brazile offer some indication of national officials’ frustration with Obama on this front — despite his groundbreaking status as the first black president.
According to an excerpt from the Chicago Sun Times, Brazile had reportedly complained to Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, about the “lack of black appointments” in the new administration.
The Democrat “well remembered how the administration of the first black president was dominated by white men,” the book’s authors write.
“In terms of diversity,” Brazile shot back, “Obama wasn’t exactly the black gold standard.”
Biden also reportedly complained that Obama didn’t lift a finger to help him win the 2020 South Carolina primary, the race that secured him the Democratic nomination.
The former president and his staff also worked subtly to keep Biden from running for president in 2016. They instead favored Hillary Clinton, who later lost to Trump, Politico had reported in 2020.
“I am confident that Barack is not comfortable with the reporting of this administration as more transformative than his,” the book claims, Biden told an aide
“The president did not encourage Biden’s potential White House bid at the time,” the current commander-in-chief said.
Meanwhile, Biden told Obama he intended to run for president again in 2024, The Hill reported last week.
One person said Biden “wants to run and he’s letting everyone know.”
If successful, he would be 81 by the time of his second inauguration.
Before becoming Obama’s running mate, Biden had two previous presidential campaigns, in 2008 and 1988, neither of which lasted long.
Earlier this month, Obama returned to the White House for the first time since leaving office to mark the twelfth anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Upon taking the stage at the event, Obama jokingly referred to the current White House resident as “Vice President Biden.”