CHICAGO – Former President Obama took the stage on the Democratic Nationwide Conference (DNC) in Chicago on Tuesday night, when he praised President Biden simply weeks after reportedly serving to oust Biden from his re-election effort.
“It has been 16 years since I had the dignity of accepting this celebration’s nomination for president. And I do know that is laborious to imagine since I haven’t aged a bit, nevertheless it’s true. And searching again, I can say with out query that my first large determination as your nominee turned out to be certainly one of my finest. And that was asking Joe Biden to serve by my facet as vice chairman,” Obama stated on Tuesday night from the DNC.
“Apart from some frequent Irish blood, Joe and I come from completely different backgrounds. However we grew to become brothers. And as we labored collectively for eight – typically, fairly robust – years, what I got here to admire most about Joe wasn’t simply his smarts and expertise, nevertheless it was his empathy and his decency. And his hard-earned resiliency and his unshakable perception that everybody on this nation deserves a good shot.”
FLASHBACK: OBAMA WAS ONE OF EARLIEST BIG-NAME DEMS TO ENDORSE WALZ AT DAWN OF HIS POLITICAL CAREER
Former President Obama pauses as he speaks throughout Day 2 of the Democratic Nationwide Conference in Chicago on Aug. 20, 2024. (REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer)
“Historical past will keep in mind Joe Biden as an excellent president who defended democracy at a second of nice hazard. And I’m proud to name him my president, however even prouder to name him my pal,” the forty fourth president continued of his former vice chairman.
Harris grew to become the Democrat nominee for president upon Biden’s withdrawal from the race after his disastrous June debate efficiency towards former President Trump, which included the president shedding his practice of thought, stumbling over his phrases and showing extra subdued than throughout different public occasions lately. The controversy efficiency opened the floodgates to conventional Democrat allies and legacy media retailers becoming a member of conservatives of their considerations over Biden’s psychological acuity and age.
After the White Home and Biden marketing campaign repeatedly denied the president would drop out of the race, Biden introduced in a put up on a Sunday afternoon final month that he was ending his marketing campaign and would perform his remaining months within the White Home.
Forward of Biden dropping out of the race, Obama allies notably helped lead the cost in calling for the president to get out of the race in favor of a candidate they believed was extra appropriate to tackle Trump.
Former President Obama arrives to talk subsequent to former first woman Michelle Obama through the Democratic Nationwide Conference on the United Middle in Chicago on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs)
Obama’s former chief marketing campaign strategist, David Axelrod, stated final month, for instance, that Biden is “not profitable this race.” Whereas actor and longtime pal of the Obamas, George Clooney, known as on Biden to drop out of the race in a bombshell op-ed that was revealed simply weeks after the Hollywood star co-hosted Biden, alongside Obama, at a ritzy marketing campaign occasion in Los Angeles.
OBAMA ALLIES, ADVISERS HELPED LEAD THE CHARGE AMONG DEMS LOOKING TO SINK BIDEN AHEAD OF OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
One other ally in Obama’s orbit, Jon Favreau, who served as former director of speech writing for Obama, additionally known as on Biden to drop out of the race final month, saying he attended the fundraiser in Los Angeles with Clooney and Obama and witnessed firsthand Biden’s state of psychological acuity.
Harris and Walz have been notably almost 100 miles away from the DNC throughout Obama’s speech, holding a rally in Milwaukee as a substitute. Fox Information was advised the plan for Harris and Walz to be away from the DNC on Tuesday got here collectively to keep away from the optics of Harris showing alongside one of many figures Biden views as chargeable for serving to finish his re-election bid.
“[The] Obamas are nonetheless not on the White Home good facet,” a supply aware of the state of affairs advised Fox Information. “It could not be useful to their relationships.”
“We’re in difficult territory,” this supply added.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the Truman Balcony of the White Home in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, July 4, 2024. (Tierney L. Cross)
Harris presently has fewer than 76 days to encourage voters to rally behind her White Home run, which has notably included including a bevy of Obama orbit insiders and advisers to her election effort, akin to David Plouffe, Eric Holder and Jennifer O’Malley Dillon.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Obama attend an occasion to mark the 2010 passage of the Reasonably priced Care Act within the East Room of the White Home on April 5, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs)
Obama’s connections to Harris run deep, with the pair having a longstanding friendship that stretches again to the early 2000s. Harris was in attendance when Obama introduced his candidacy for president in 2007, after first assembly him in 2004 when he was an Illinois state senator working for the U.S. Senate.
OBAMA TAKES SUBTLE SWIPE AT VANCE WHILE PRAISING WALZ AS ‘IDEAL’ HARRIS RUNNING MATE
Harris was among the many first elected Democrats within the nation to endorse Obama’s first run for president within the 2008 election, snubbing Hillary Clinton in favor of the then-Illinois senator.
“Barack Obama shall be a president who lastly ends the period of worry that has been used to divide and demoralize our nation,” Harris stated throughout California’s Democratic conference in 2008.
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers the keynote speech on the American Federation of Lecturers’ 88th Nationwide Conference in Houston on July 25, 2024. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
As Harris constructed her political profession from San Francisco district legal professional to California legal professional common after which senator, she was even dubbed “the feminine Obama” by some political analysts.
Obama went on to laud Harris’ political and authorized profession in California earlier than her vice presidency throughout his DNC speech.
“As a prosecutor, Kamala stood up for kids who had been victims of sexual abuse. As an legal professional common of essentially the most populous state within the nation, she fought large banks and for-profit faculties, securing billions of {dollars} for the individuals that they had scammed. After the house mortgage disaster, she pushed me and my administration laborious to ensure householders obtained a good settlement. Didn’t matter that I used to be a Democrat. Did not matter she had knocked on doorways for my marketing campaign in Iowa – she was going to battle to get as a lot reduction as attainable for the households who deserved it,” he stated.
Former President Barack Obama hugs Vice President Kamala Harris throughout an occasion to mark the 2010 passage of the Reasonably priced Care Act within the East Room of the White Home on April 5, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs)
“Kamala Harris received’t be targeted on her issues. She’ll be targeted on yours. As president, she received’t simply cater to her personal supporters and punish those that refuse to kiss the ring or bend the knee. She’ll work on behalf of each American,” he continued.
“That’s who Kamala is. And within the White Home, she may have an excellent companion in Gov. Tim Walz.”
HARRIS CELEBRATES ‘CEREMONIAL’ CHICAGO DNC ROLL CALL VOTE FROM MILWAUKEE RALLY
Walz additionally has ties to Obama going again years. Obama, when he served as an Illinois senator, was one of many few high-profile Democrats within the nation to marketing campaign for Walz on the daybreak of his profession in 2006. Walz was elected to the Home the place he served from 2007 to 2019, when he was sworn-in as governor of the Gopher State.
“I simply keep in mind standing on that stage, and we have been coming off it, and there was somebody there who was a supporter of mine who stated, ‘Cease, let me take an image,’” Walz stated in 2017 of how Obama traveled to Minnesota to assist him throughout his first congressional run in 2006.
MEET KAMALA HARRIS’ RUNNING MATE WHO CALLED REPUBLICANS ‘WEIRD PEOPLE’
Vice President Kamala Harris and her working mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, maintain a marketing campaign rally in Milwaukee on Aug. 20, 2024. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
The pair, in addition to then-Hennepin County Legal professional Amy Klobuchar, took a photograph collectively, which Walz framed and hanged in his home, he told the MinnPost in 2017.
“A future congressman, a future senator, and a future president,” Walz stated he captioned the picture, noting that Obama was one of many few high-profile Democrats on the time to assist him again in 2006.
Obama additionally took photographs at former President Trump throughout his speech, portray him as energy hungry.
“The reality is, Donald Trump sees energy as nothing greater than a method to his ends. He desires the center class to pay the value for one more large tax lower that will largely assist him and his wealthy pals. He killed a bipartisan immigration deal written partly by some of the conservative Republicans in Congress that will have helped safe our southern border as a result of he thought attempting to truly clear up the issue would harm his marketing campaign,” he stated.
“He does not appear to care if extra girls lose their reproductive freedom because it will not have an effect on his life. And, most of all, Donald Trump desires us to assume that this nation is hopelessly divided between us and them, between the actual People who, in fact, assist him, and the outsiders who do not.”
Harris is slated to take the DNC stage on Thursday night, when she’s going to ship her acceptance speech for the Democratic Social gathering’s nomination earlier than the DNC concludes.
Get the most recent updates from the 2024 marketing campaign path, unique interviews and extra at our Fox Information Digital election hub.
Fox Information’ Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report.
