Ad With Biden, Obama Draws Trump Rebuke

Conversation in new video includes criticism of the way the pandemic has been handled
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 23, 2020 4:52 PM CDT
Ad With Biden, Obama Draws Trump Rebuke
President Barack Obama listens as Vice President Joe Biden speaks in 2016.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Joe Biden had a chat with his former boss, and the video of it released Thursday has already elicited a critical response from President Trump. Their conversation drew contrasts between Trump's handling of the pandemic and their own leadership, the Hill reports. "You and I had experience dealing with health crises, public health crises," former President Obama tells Biden, "and in each instance what you and I understood, and why I have so much confidence that you're going to be able to deal with COVID in the way that other countries with our kinds of resources are dealing with it right now, which is smartly—I have confidence you're going to actually listen to the experts." Another dig was Biden's mention that they had a pandemic response office in the White House, which Trump booted. Trump has said Obama left the government unprepared for an outbreak.

The president's tweet pointed out that Obama didn't endorse Biden during the Democratic nomination battle. "Remember, I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for them. I wouldn't be President," Trump wrote. "They did a terrible job!" The 15-minute conversation was recorded in Obama's Washington office with the two men sitting far apart, per the New York Times. They discussed several issues, each time returning to Trump's record of leadership and their own. Trump has been dividing Americans from the beginning, Biden argued, saying, "And I think people are now going, 'I don't want my kid growing up that way.'" Obama said Biden would change that. "The thing I've got confidence in, Joe, is your heart and your character," he said. (More Joe Biden 2020 stories.)

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