Some Biden staffers aren’t happy that many Obama alums were given higher-level roles over longtime Biden aides, per Axios.”We do have too many Obama people who don’t care about Joe Biden,” an ex-White House official said.Obama is set to play a major role as a surrogate for Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign.
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When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he brought back into the White House a contingent of staffers who had also worked under his onetime boss, former President Barack Obama.It was a development that wasn’t surprising, as the Democratic administrations would naturally be linked due to the relationship between Obama and Biden.But according to a newly-published Axios report, some Biden staffers have taken exception to the numerous Obama veterans who joined that current administration and were elevated to positions above aides who had been with the president for a longer timeframe.”We do have too many Obama people who don’t care about Joe Biden,” an ex-White House official told the outlet. “It’s about them.”The dynamic is already being tested as Biden faces a tough reelection bid against former President Donald Trump, with onetime Obama aides pointing out circumstances that were beneficial to the ex-president — while Biden aides have stepped in to reiterate that the two men are different individuals.
“When people say, ‘This is what worked for Obama,’ their first response is often, ‘We’re not Obama,'” a senior Democrat told Axios of Biden’s staffers.When Obama tapped Biden to be his running mate in August 2008, the then-Illinois senator was still new to Washington and the selection of the then-Delaware senator as his No. 2 was widely seen as a smart move — as Biden had decades of experience on Capitol Hill as a lawmaker focused heavily on foreign affairs and judicial matters.During Obama’s tenure in office, the two men were often depicted as having one of the strongest “bromances” between any recent president and vice president.However, Biden wrote in his memoir, “Promise Me, Dad,” that Obama “was not encouraging” as he weighed jumping into the 2016 presidential race, where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the overwhelming favorite before the Democratic primaries had even started.Axios reported that Biden privately told staffers he could’ve beaten Trump in 2016 had he been the Democratic nominee that year. The outlet also reported that Biden has previously remarked that “Obama would be jealous” over accomplishments made during his administration.But White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Axios that Biden “does not make such comments in private.””As President Biden has said, President Obama is family to him,” Bates added.Ahead of November, Obama is set to play a key role as a surrogate for his former No. 2’s reelection bid.
