Obama, Clinton, Biden Unite Against Trump’s Re-Election Bid

TFD – Join Obama, Clinton, and Biden in their united stand against a potential second term for Trump. Explore how their support for Biden’s re-election campaign aims to protect US democracy.

A president may occasionally need the assistance of another president, or perhaps two presidents.

President Joe Biden’s bid for a second term and reelection campaign coffers will get a hefty boost on Thursday when he’s joined in New York by his two immediate predecessors as Democratic presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

In order to keep 45th president Donald Trump from running for office again as the 47th, the 46th president will receive a message of support from the 42nd and 44th presidents through the lucrative fundraiser in New York.

Obama in particular has been more actively involved in Biden’s reelection campaign in recent weeks, driven by fear that the former vice president and friend of his may be forced to pass over the Oval Office to Trump, just as he was. It was reported on Wednesday by CNN’s MJ Lee and Jeff Zeleny that Obama visited the White House only last week on a working visit. According to sources, Biden has also maintained regular communication with Clinton, who served as president at the time the current president was a significant Senate voice on matters of justice and foreign policy.

The three men’s combined appearance at Radio City Music Hall is sure to create a symbolic moment that highlights the importance of this election. Together, two Democratic presidents who were elected to two terms are attempting to elevate a successor into the same elite political echelon despite the latter’s age difference.

It will also be a unique chance to see four presidents in one place on the same day outside of Washington. Due to his excessive behavior, Trump has been permanently barred from the ex-presidents’ club. On Thursday, he is scheduled to attend a wake for the late New York City Police Officer Jonathan Diller on Long Island. The other living ex-presidents are Jimmy Carter, who has been in hospice care for over a year, and George W. Bush, who is very friendly with both Obama and Clinton, but as a Republican is unlikely to campaign for Biden even given his disdain for Trump’s contempt for democracy.

Biden, Clinton, and Obama belong to a select group of men who have experienced the isolating nature of being president, the weight of dispatching military soldiers to fight overseas, and the stress of attempting to secure a second term while working as day employees in the Oval Office.

This this cycle, the fundraiser marks the first significant combined appearance between Obama and Clinton in support of Biden. However, it will also make people wonder if the two former presidents still have the same political influence as before. While both remain Democratic rock stars and possess more charisma and talent as campaign trail rhetoricians than Biden, it’s been 16 years since Obama was first elected in a euphoric mood of hope and change. And Clinton has been out of the White House for nearly a quarter of a century. The two former presidents both retain strong support among African American voters who are vital to the Democratic coalition. And Obama is expected to be dispatched to college campuses in the fall to try

However, Leon Panetta, who worked for both Obama and Clinton as defense secretary and director of the CIA, as well as for Clinton as chief of staff of the White House, told CNN on Tuesday that Obama could be especially helpful to Biden, particularly on health care, an issue that Biden and Obama collaborated to highlight on a call last weekend.

“I believe they need to exercise caution in their use of the former president,” Panetta stated on Thursday’s “CNN News Central.” “I think I would hold off until closer to the convention, election, and fall. However, I believe he can be a huge asset in terms of reaching not only the typical American but also, obviously, the young people, minorities, and Latinos who will be essential to Joe Biden’s victory in this election.

The two main explainers for Biden

The expectation among Biden’s supporters will be that Obama and Clinton will have a comparable influence on the campaign as they did on Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. At a moment when many Americans were not fully experiencing the benefits of an economic recovery following a crisis, the then-president was having difficulty persuading voters that he was adequately handling the economy. At the Democratic National Convention, however, Clinton gave a classic prime-time speech, employing a charming and convincing turn of phrase that presented a stronger case for Obama’s second term than the president had.

Clinton declared, “I want to nominate a man who burns for America on the inside but is cool on the outside.” Obama called Clinton his “explainer-in-chief” and expressed his sincere gratitude for an appearance that gave his campaign against Republican challenger Mitt Romney fresh impetus.

The gathering on Thursday night will be the latest development in the intriguing relationships between three individuals who achieved the highest level of political success. By definition, those who run for president tend to have large egos. Clinton, Obama and Biden, though they are now working toward the same goal, have sometimes also gotten in each other’s way – and at times there have been tensions between them.

The complicated relationships between the three presidents are further enhanced by the dashed dreams of another historical figure, former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost her two attempts to win the presidency to Trump and Obama.

The fact that Joe Biden actually ran for president before any of them is something to his incredible endurance in politics. Although he was viewed as the Democratic Party’s best chance going forward, a plagiarism issue embarrassed him during his 1988 bid for the nomination, which took place four years before Bill Clinton’s campaign.

Many of Obama’s own staff members were dubious of Biden, viewing him as a self-deprecating blunder generator, when the then-Delaware senator decided to run for president again in 2008 and Obama needed some foreign policy support. According to reports, the Democratic contender had apparently grown tired of the old Senate bull’s rambling speeches and exaggeration. In his book “The Long Alliance,” journalist Gabriel Debenedetti related the following incident regarding the friendship between Biden and Obama: The note, “Shoot. Me. Now,” was delivered to an aide by the then-Illinois senator Biden after he unleashed a stemwinder at a congressional hearing.

However, the two men grew closer over time in the White House. In discussions of foreign policy, Biden was a useful devil’s advocate and last line of defense. Additionally, he gained fresh respect for his role in carrying out Recovery Act spending plans and his strong allegiance to the president. However, the vice president once irritated Obama’s team by supporting same-sex marriage before the president did, at a highly contentious period for the topic.

With his beloved son Beau suffering from cancer, Biden turned more and more to Obama for support. And after giving a heartfelt eulogy that paid equal honor to his late son and his vice president, Obama hugged Biden and planted a kiss on his cheek.

Obama shocked a crying Joe Biden in the last days of his administration by giving him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He cited a Republican who asked not to be identified and stated of Biden, “You got a problem if you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person.” He is the best man that God has ever made.

Obama and Biden have made multiple appearances together while the current administration is in office. Additionally, the former president cautioned that Trump constituted an unacceptable threat to democracy in a potent primetime address he gave in support of the Democratic nominee during the 2020 Covid-19 campaign.

However, Biden still finds it offensive that Obama believed Hillary Clinton, not him, was the greatest candidate to help the Democrats retain the White House. Biden was still thinking about this as recently as last year, when he sat for an interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating his handling of classified documents. “I’m not—and this isn’t meant to be hurtful. He simply believed that she had a greater chance than me of becoming president,” Biden remarked. A few former Obama aides have refuted claims that their former boss took any action to keep Biden out of the 2016 race.

Clinton and Biden have a longer history together than Obama and Biden do.

One of the most significant legacy accomplishments of the then-president was his assistance in bringing Clinton’s nominee, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to the Supreme Court in 1993 while serving as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. As one of the most assertive voices on Capitol Hill during the war in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Biden occasionally irritated the White House by advocating for US engagement, a move that Clinton had long delayed. He eventually launched a peace initiative that ended the most damaging post-World War II war on the European landmass until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

However, following the president’s impeachment due to an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Biden proved to be a crucial supporter for Clinton. Additionally, Biden and Hillary Clinton had a close and cordial connection when he was appointed vice president, which was preserved by frequent breakfasts at the vice president’s official residence in Washington.

Prior to Bill Clinton supporting Obama in 2012, Obama and Clinton also had a turbulent relationship. One of the earliest notable figures in politics, Clinton saw the danger the charismatic Obama posed to his wife’s 2008 campaign. There were moments when the Clinton and Obama camps were extremely hostile as the youthful senator defeated the Clintons, ending their nearly two-decade-long dominance of the party. Bill Clinton, who had taken great satisfaction in his rapport with African American voters, grew particularly agitated when the African American Democratic establishment broke away from his spouse and coalesced around Obama.

At one point, Clinton described Obama’s opposition to the Iraq War – the key to his appeal among many Democrats – as a “fairy tale,” which fed complaints from some Obama supporters that he was using a racist trope. Clinton’s rage was shown in South Carolina, where Obama defeated the outgoing first lady in the Democratic primary, setting him up for victory and a trip to the White House.

However, the three presidents have mostly moved past their differences and will come together on Thursday to oppose a potential second term for Trump, which they all see as almost an existential threat to US democracy.