Apparently, former President Barack Obama did not want former Vice President Kamala Harris to replace former President Joe Biden on the presidential ticket.
Is anyone shocked?
NBC political reporter Jonathan Allen dishing out some insight from his book FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House about the Democrats’ fiasco last summer.
Allen wrote the book with The Hill senior correspondent Amie Parnes.
Allen spilled this tidbit on Morning Jo on Tuesday. From Mediaite:
So President Obama absolutely did not think that Joe Biden should continue, according to our sources close to President Obama. And he also didn’t want Kamala Harris to be the replacement for Biden. He didn’t think that she was the best choice for Democrats. And he worked really behind the scenes for a long time to try to have a mini primary or an open convention or mini primary leading to an open convention. He did not have faith in her ability to win the election. So and as it turned out, she didn’t win, but he was really working against her.In one moment. He had set up a phone call with congressman [Jim] Clyburn from South Carolina on the day that Joe Biden handed off the baton to Kamala Harris, and Obama had set up a call with Clyburn for like 5:30 that afternoon. And Clyburn thought to himself, ‘this guy is going to try to rope me into the open convention thing. I better get my endorsement of Harris out there fast.’ So this is a short conversation and when Harris talked to Obama on the day that Biden handed off to her, Obama was unwilling to give his endorsement then.
Again, not shocking.
Biden dropped out of the race on July 21. He immediately endorsed Harris.
On July 24, The New York Post reported that a person close to Biden claimed that Obama did not endorse Harris right away because he didn’t think she could beat now President Donald Trump:
“Obama’s very upset because he knows she can’t win,” the Biden family source told The Post.“Obama knows she’s just incompetent — the border czar who never visited the border, saying that all migrants should have health insurance. She cannot navigate the landmines that are ahead of her.”“When you are running for president there are things you can and can’t say.”The source also said a debate between Trump and Harris will show she is weak:“Wait until the debate… She can’t debate. She’s going to put her foot in her mouth about Israel, Palestine, Ukraine. She’s going to say something really stupid,” the source said.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY