President Joe Biden’s polling numbers are the lowest they’ve ever been. Prices spiked, and so did crime. The U.S. southern border crisis is about to get much worse. And his competency has been questioned after numerous gaffes and eyebrow-raising “senior moments.”
But Biden is convinced he’s the only choice Democrats have in 2024 — and he told former President Barack Obama that he would run again at age 82.
According to numerous sources, Biden believes former President Donald Trump will win the Republican presidential nomination… and Biden told Obama he was the only Democrat capable of beating the 45th president.
“I believe he thinks he’s the only one who can beat Trump. I don’t think he thinks there’s anyone in the Democratic party who can beat Trump and that’s the biggest factor,” an insider source reportedly told Fox News.
Obama is close to Biden… and not just as a political ally. In the final days of his presidency, Obama surprised then-Vice President Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and moved his No. 2 to tears by evoking the poetry of W.B. Yeats and declaring, “Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.’”
Obama returned in early April to the White House to mark the 12th anniversary of his administration’s signature health care law and to try and give Biden, who he jokingly referred to as “vice president,” a much-needed boost in the polls.
“They are real friends, not just Washington friends,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who added, “It’s not a relationship of obligation. It’s one where they developed a deep and close friendship through the course of their time serving together.”
The two originally competed for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, then Obama made Biden his running mate to bring Washington experience to the ticket. Biden said he wanted to be the last person in the room giving Obama advice.
Biden proved an asset to Obama in that election and the two only got closer while winning a second term in 2012. Some of Biden’s key tasks included overseeing the disbursement of federal stimulus funds following the 2008 financial crisis, and helping negotiate major legislation with Republicans in Congress. After the health law was passed in 2010, he memorably declared that it was a “big (expletive) deal.”
READ MORE: Barack Obama won’t like this clever Florida plan…
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.