President Joe Biden caught stray criticisms from former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama during their Democratic National Convention speeches Tuesday night.
The former president reportedly played a role in ousting Biden last month, with his skepticism of the viability of Biden's candidacy leaking after his lackluster debate performance. While Barack Obama devoted a significant amount of time to praising his former vice president, his DNC speech also contained veiled criticisms of him.
"America’s ready for a new chapter," he said. "America’s ready for a better story We are ready for a President Kamala Harris."
Michelle Obama was much more overt in her criticisms.
The former first lady began her speech by saying that “something wonderfully magical is in the air ... a familiar feeling that’s been buried too deep for far too long.”
She then twisted the knife, praising “the contagious power of hope” and the “exhilaration of once again being on the cusp of a brighter day.”
The couple's remarks blurred the Trump and Biden years together in a way that irked some people close to the president.
“It was an implicit rebuke of the Biden era,” one White House aide told Politico, saying that the implication was that the Trump and Biden presidencies were part of one long dark period.
Biden's relationship with his former boss has been a contentious one. The two were not always on the same page when they were in the White House, and Biden was reportedly frustrated with the former president when he anointed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the next best hope to follow him in 2016.
In 2019, Barack Obama was slow to endorse Biden, waiting until after Super Tuesday to release a video supporting his former vice president.
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There was some speculation before Biden dropped out of the 2024 contest last month driven in part by Obama's reported behind-the-scenes movements to push him aside. Obama pushing Biden to throw in the towel was going to drive the president to dig his heels in even more on staying in the race, aides told Axios last month.
The Obamas were the star speakers of the second night of the DNC, two of the biggest speakers of the entire convention. Other prominent speakers included second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
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