Obama Endorses Joe Biden for President
WASHINGTON – Former President Barack Obama endorsed Joe Biden on Tuesday, re-entering the political fray after months of maintaining his neutrality.
The former president’s endorsement came a day after Biden’s last remaining rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., gave his endorsement via a livestream chat.
In a video posted to Twitter, Obama said, “if there’s one thing we’ve learned as a country from moments of great crisis, it’s that the spirit of looking out for one another can’t be restricted to our homes or our workplaces or our neighborhoods or our houses of worship.
“It also has to be reflected in our national government. The kind of leadership that’s guided by knowledge and experience, honesty and humility, empathy and grace,” he said. “That kind of leadership doesn’t just belong in our state capitals and mayor’s offices. It belongs in the White House and that’s why I’m so proud to endorse Joe Biden for president of the United States.”
The former president went on to say that choosing Biden to be his vice president “was one of the best decisions I ever made and he became a close friend.
“I believe Joe has all the qualities we need in a president right now,” Obama said.
The former president goes on to speak for another 12 minutes, recalling Biden’s role in the accomplishments of the Obama administration.
“Joe was there as we rebuilt from the great recession and rescued the American auto industry,” Obama said. “He was the one asking what every policy would do for the middle-class and everyone striving to get into the middle-class. That’s why I asked him to implement the Recovery Act, which saved millions of jobs and got people back on their feet … because Joe gets stuff done.
“Joe helped me manage H1N1 [Swine flu outbreak] and prevent the Ebola epidemic from becoming the type of pandemic we’re seeing now,” he continued. “Joe has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery.
“And I know he’ll surround himself with good people, experts, scientists, military officials who actually know how to run the government and … who will always put the American people’s interests above their own,” Obama said.
The former president also went to great lengths to forge a renewed spirit of party unity, saying Biden will be a better candidate for having faced off against “one of the most impressive Democratic fields ever.
“Each of our candidates was talented and decent, but also had a track record of accomplishment, smart ideas, and serious visions for the future,” he said, going on to call Sen. Sanders an “American original.”
“He and I haven’t always agreed on everything,” the former president said of a man who considered running a primary against him in 2012, “but we’ve always shared a conviction that we have to make America a fairer, more just, more equitable society.”
The Trump campaign responded to the endorsement tersely, claiming now that Biden is the last Democrat standing “Obama has no other choice but to support him.”
“Biden is a bad candidate who will embarrass himself and his party. President Trump will destroy him,” said Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale.
