OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Barack Obama is sounding the alarm for Democrats after private meetings with President Biden, stating concern he could lose a rematch with Donald Trump.
According to a report by TIME Magazine, Obama met with Biden in June last year and expressed concern about Biden’s chances of being re-elected. Obama is said to have advised Biden to adopt a more aggressive approach and make the upcoming presidential race a referendum on Trump’s policies.
During a private lunch, Obama reportedly expressed concerns to Biden about the instability of his campaign, the difficulty in persuading unhappy voters, and the challenge of defeating Trump in the upcoming election, according to a Democrat who was briefed on the conversation.
Obama allegedly saw little improvement in Biden’s actions over the next six months, despite believing at the time that Biden had taken his advice to heart, Fox News noted, citing the TIME report.
“This time, Obama’s message was more urgent. He expressed concern the re-election campaign was behind schedule in building out its field operations and bottlenecked by Biden’s insistence on relying upon an insular group of advisers clustered in the West Wing, according to the same Democratic insider,” TIME noted.
Obama warned Biden that Trump could potentially win all seven battleground states, which would lead to Trump’s victory. In the 2020 election, Biden won by securing narrow victories in the swing states of Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Trump had won all of these states during the 2016 election.
According to a recent report from Axios, Obama and Biden have a long-standing rivalry over their individual accomplishments and policies. The article also suggested that Biden has privately criticized Obama, but White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates has denied this claim.
Per Politico, Obama will be joining Biden for a virtual rally on Saturday to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, which is also known as Obamacare. The event is aimed at highlighting one of the strongest reasons for re-electing the President, as per Biden’s advisers.
Meanwhile, Republican voters have spoken and have said who they want to be Trump’s choice for vice president in the next election.
This week, the Center Square Voter’s Voice conducted a poll in which voters were asked, “Who should Donald Trump choose as his vice presidential candidate?”
The poll showed Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis narrowly ahead of other contenders on the list with 18 percent, ahead of former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who had 17 percent.
Sen. Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy both had 15 percent ahead of all other contenders who were in single digits.
The former president, who has secured the delegates needed to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, phoned Ramaswamy to inform him that he would not be the pick, Bloomberg News reported.
“There’s a lot of press speculation, but I can tell you Vivek’s top focus is making sure we get President Trump elected so that we can take America First to the next level,” the former candidate’s spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said to The New York Post.
“This country would be lucky to have him serve in the next administration and beyond. In the meantime, Vivek is focused on driving change in the private sector and reforming our economy, including by continuing to push back against the ESG cancer in corporate America,” she said.
Popular SiriusXM podcast host Megyn Kelly thinks she has identified a new potential running mate on former President Donald Trump’s shortlist: Freshman Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama.
Kelly speculated that Britt, who delivered the GOP rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address, could potentially be considered a “dark horse” candidate for Trump’s running mate. Nevertheless, according to the Daily Caller, the conservative commentator suggested that Trump might have been dissatisfied or embarrassed by Britt’s performance.
“I have my own theory,” she continued. “My theory is it could be a reference to a rising star in the Republican Party who had such heat and buzz around them that they were asked to deliver the response to the State of the Union — and then bombed.”
