Former US President Barack Obama “can’t stand” President Joe Biden and was instrumental in killing his reelection campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump has alleged.
Biden announced on Sunday that he was dropping out of the race for the White House and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, to run in his stead. In the runup to the announcement, Obama was reportedly one of several top Democrats privately urging Biden to end his campaign, out of concern that the visibly infirm 81-year-old could not defeat former president Trump in November.
“Obama can’t stand him, and he can’t stand Obama,” Trump told the New York Post on Tuesday. “Obama had a part because he said he wasn’t going to support him.”
“Nancy Pelosi dumped him,” Trump continued, referring to the former House Speaker taking to cable news to cast doubts on Biden’s ability to serve. “They all dumped him, and they said, ‘Either you get out nice or we’re going to go after you.’ And that’s what happened. And he had no choice. There’s no question about it.”
Biden announced his departure from the race via a social media post, made while he was cloistered away at his Delaware home recovering from Covid-19. This reportedly shocked some of the president’s aides, who told Politico that they had no inkling he would leave the race until they saw the posts on X.
Biden has not spoken to the public since the announcement, and slurred his words during a phoned-in message delivered to Harris’ campaign headquarters on Monday.
“He was pushed out of power like a dog,” Trump said of Biden on Wednesday, in a post to his Truth Social platform.
Prior to Biden’s announcement, most polls showed Trump leading the 81-year-old by between one and nine points. A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday showed Harris beating Trump by 44% to 42%, although analysts have cautioned that this initial “bump” in support will likely subside in the coming weeks.
“She’s the same as Biden but much more radical,” Trump said of Harris. “She wants open borders. She wants things that nobody wants…so I think she should be easier than Biden, because he was slightly more mainstream, but not much.”
Obama did not join Biden in endorsing Harris. In a statement on Sunday praising Biden for stepping aside, the former president did not mention Harris, and called on Democrats to “create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges” at the party’s convention in August.
However, Harris has already won the support of enough Democratic delegates to secure the party’s nomination. Should she get the nod, she will be the first presidential candidate in 56 years to run for the White House without ever competing in a primary election. Harris dropped out of the race for the presidency in 2019 with her polling numbers between 1% and 2%.