Exclusive: Obama expressed concerns about Biden

Former US President Barack Obama spoke privately with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about Joe Biden and the future of his 2024 campaign. Both men expressed concern about how difficult they think it has become for the current president to defeat Donald Trump. Neither is sure what to do.

Democrats are desperate for the disheartening infighting to end so they can get back to trying to defeat former President Donald Trump. And they are begging Obama or Pelosi to help them get there, knowing that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer does not have Biden’s trust and that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries lacks the depth of rapport needed to get the message across.

A CNN spoke with more than a dozen members of Congress, operatives and several people in contact with Obama and Pelosi, many of whom say the end of Biden’s candidacy seems clear and at this point it’s just a question of how that plays out, even after Thursday night’s (11) press conference.

And if those two think otherwise, several Democratic leaders say, they need to say so clearly as soon as possible, before even more damage is done less than four months before the election.

Many of Pelosi’s colleagues hope she can put an end to the turmoil that has engulfed Democrats over the past two weeks. And for a good portion of them, that end could come if and when she tells Biden he will have to drop out.

Pelosi has spoken to Biden since the debate, but the California Democrat has since made clear that she does not view Biden’s decision to remain in the race as final. But she, through an aide, declined to comment further.

Obama’s decision to make no public comments for two weeks has left many Democratic leaders feeling that he has left them in the lurch by maintaining the same stance that has largely defined his post-presidency.

After the debate, he posted on X: “Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know,” echoing that sentiment at a New York fundraiser for House Democrats the night after Biden’s performance. The former president had not planned to make any public statements, but Biden and Obama aides coordinated to release the post in a way that reflected the Biden campaign’s claim that Obama’s first reelection debate in 2012 also went badly and did not lead to his dropping out of the race.

But Obama’s growing skepticism about his friend’s ability to win re-election is one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington.

When the history of this extraordinary two weeks of American politics is written, Obama and Pelosi’s fingerprints will be far more apparent than is currently known, they told CNN people familiar with the matter, as Democratic leaders served as a guide for a panicked party.

“They are watching and waiting for President Biden to make a decision on his own,” he told CNN a longtime Democrat close to all of them, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid being seen as disrespectful to Biden.

The Biden campaign declined to comment.

While not disputing that the former House speaker and Obama spoke about Biden, a Pelosi aide told CNN after this article was first published: “There is no member of Congress who has knowledge of any conversation Pelosi had with President Obama. Anyone who says she did is not telling the truth.”

Mr. Obama has been taking more calls than he has been making, people who have spoken to him say. When he does speak to eager Democratic donors and officials, he has been listening more than he has been talking, carefully avoiding taking positions that he assumes would quickly leak out.

That was also Obama’s approach to his post-debate call with Biden, which the current president suggested to others included the former president’s support for getting him through the turmoil. But according to other people familiar with the appeal, Obama maintained his stance as a “sounding board and private adviser.” He played devil’s advocate. But he did not take a stand.

In conversations with some Democrats over the past two weeks, Obama has dismissed the notion that he could push Biden in one direction or another even if he wanted to, underscoring their long-standing but complicated relationship. And it has become even more complicated during their time apart: Since leaving office — and since their weekly lunches at the White House for eight years — the two have spoken far less than some of their advisers have often suggested.

If the former president tried to convince Biden to drop out, people who know Obama say, he knows the prism through which it might be viewed. Biden has written that he felt Obama did not encourage him to run late for the Democratic primary in the months after his son Beau’s death in 2015. While Obama believes he was trying to help his then-vice president focus on his grief and not on what would have been an incredibly difficult primary campaign against Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, that might not be how another conversation would go.

“Biden would say, ‘Well, Mr. President, you already played that card in 2015 and it got us Donald Trump,’” a former 2020 campaign aide speculated. “I think that would toughen him up even more.”

Obama is also loathe to give Trump, who is always encouraged by him, any new material by actively engaging.

In the past — including during the 2020 Democratic primaries — Obama has understood his role in the party as a unifier to validate the party’s direction at times when different parts of the coalition are skeptical.

So far, he has not committed to playing that role in the turmoil over whether Biden should remain the nominee, what will happen if he does or what will happen if he changes course and decides to leave. “Well, he’s known as the no-drama Obama,” said Representative Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat. “So if there is drama, he’s the one who should deal with it.”

Obama’s lackadaisical approach — at least publicly — has been seen by some close to him as a way to keep his powder dry in case he needs to have a frank and difficult conversation with Biden.

“He’s going all in on the Democratic ticket. No matter who our candidate is, he’s going to be all in on helping make sure that person wins in November,” said a person who speaks regularly to Obama.

Obama has been at Biden’s side at two fundraising events this year, including the Los Angeles event last month, at which George Clooney would later acknowledge he was alarmed by how Biden conducted himself.

Biden woke up in Italy the day before the fundraiser — after several days of G7 meetings — and had to fly overnight across five time zones to get there because campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg was eager to host the Hollywood-themed event and Clooney told the campaign there was only one day he would be available, given his filming schedule.

Even on the way there, Obama questioned the idea of ​​subjecting any presidential candidate to that kind of scheduling pressure.

“He was the same man we all witnessed in the debate,” Clooney wrote in an essay in The New York Times this week, imploring Biden to step aside.

It was these words that infuriated some Biden supporters, who suggested that Obama was behind Clooney’s article. The former president, a friend of the actor, knew it was coming but did not try to stop it. For some Obama supporters, it was a way of preserving his neutrality, but for some Biden supporters, it was a sign of profound betrayal.

Obama spent much longer behind the scenes and on stage with Biden than Clooney did. Others at the time attributed the president’s condition to travel fatigue.

An Obama aide declined to comment.

Pelosi broke the dam again

As House Democrats left their private meeting Tuesday morning, many felt the worst might be over for the president. Most of the anti-Biden comments in the meeting came from members who had already called for his ouster.

Then Pelosi went on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday morning for a long-scheduled appearance, using her appearance on a show the president often watches to cast major doubt on his candidacy. Privately, she told colleagues not to embarrass Biden while NATO leaders were in town. But even more Democrats interpreted her comments as a free pass to issue their own statements calling for Biden to step aside.

Pelosi has known Biden for decades. She is three years older than him. She has been one of his staunchest supporters, including during the 2020 primaries. She is no longer a House representative and has nothing to lose.

“I think at this point, if Biden ends up withdrawing as the nominee, she will prove to be the most important Democratic leader,” one House Democrat said. “She is the one in a situation like this, especially generationally, who has the credibility to weigh in on something that is so sensitive and important.”

Pelosi plans to return home to San Francisco on Friday.