CHICAGO – Former President Barack Obama took the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Tuesday evening, where he praised President Biden just weeks after reportedly helping oust Biden from his re-election effort.
“It’s been 16 years since I had the honor of accepting this party’s nomination for president. And I know that’s hard to believe since I haven’t aged a bit, but it’s true. And looking back, I can say without question that my first big decision as your nominee turned out to be one of my best. And that was asking Joe Biden to serve by my side as vice president,” Obama said on Tuesday evening from the DNC.
“Other than some common Irish blood, Joe and I come from different backgrounds. But we became brothers. And as we worked together for eight – sometimes, pretty tough – years, what I came to admire most about Joe wasn’t just his smarts and experience, but it was his empathy and his decency. And his hard-earned resiliency and his unshakable belief that everyone in this country deserves a fair shot.”
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Former U.S. President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks during Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., August 20, 2024. (REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer)
“History will remember Joe Biden as an outstanding president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger. And I am proud to call him my president, but even prouder to call him my friend,” the 44th president continued of his former vice president.
Harris became the Democrat nominee for president upon Biden’s withdrawal from the race after his disastrous June debate performance against former President Donald Trump, which included the president losing his train of thought, stumbling over his words and appearing more subdued than during other public events in recent years. The debate performance opened the floodgates to traditional Democrat allies and legacy media outlets joining conservatives in their concerns over Biden’s mental acuity and age.
After the White House and Biden campaign repeatedly denied the president would drop out of the race, Biden announced in a tweet on a Sunday afternoon last month that he was ending his campaign and would carry out his final months in the White House.
Ahead of Biden dropping out of the race, Obama allies notably helped lead the charge in calling for the president to get out of the race in favor of a candidate they believed was more suitable to take on Trump.
Former US President Barack Obama, left, arrives to speak next to former US First Lady Michelle Obama during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. The Democratic National Convention this week marks the ceremonial crowning of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as the party’s presidential nominees, capping off a whirlwind month for Democrats who quickly coalesced behind the new ticket after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Obama’s former chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod, said last month for example that Biden is “not winning this race.” While actor and longtime friend of the Obamas, George Clooney, called on Biden to drop out of the race in a bombshell op-ed that was published just weeks after the Hollywood star co-hosted Biden, alongside Obama, at a ritzy campaign event in Los Angeles.
Another ally in Obama’s orbit, Jon Favreau, who served as former director of speech writing for Obama, also called on Biden to drop out of the race last month, saying he attended the fundraiser in L.A. with Clooney and Obama and witnessed firsthand Biden’s state of mental acuity.
Harris and Walz were notably nearly 100 miles away from the DNC during Obama’s speech, holding a rally in Milwaukee instead. Fox News was told the plan for Harris and Walz to be away from the DNC on Tuesday came together to avoid the optics of Harris appearing alongside one of the figures Biden views as responsible for helping end his reelection bid.
“[The] Obamas are still not on the White House good side,” a source familiar with the situation told Fox News. “It would not be helpful to their relationships.”
“We are in tricky territory,” this source added.
US President Joe Biden, left, and Vice President Kamala Harris on the Truman Balcony of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, July 4, 2024. (Tierney L. Cross)
Harris currently has fewer than 76 days to inspire voters to rally behind her White House run, which has notably included adding a bevy of Obama orbit insiders and advisers to her election effort, such as David Plouffe, Eric Holder, and Jennifer O’Malley Dillon.
(L-R) Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Barack Obama attend an event to mark the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House on April 5, 2022 in Washington, DC. With then-Vice President Joe Biden by his side, Obama signed ‘Obamacare’ into law on March 23, 2010. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Obama’s connections to Harris run deep, with the pair having a longstanding friendship that stretches back to the early 2000s. Harris was in attendance when Obama announced his candidacy for president in 2007, after first meeting him in 2004 when he was an Illinois state senator running for the U.S. Senate.
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Harris was among the first elected Democrats in the nation to endorse Obama’s first run for president in the 2008 election, snubbing Hillary Clinton in favor of the then-Illinois senator.
“Barack Obama will be a president who finally ends the era of fear that has been used to divide and demoralize our country,” Harris said during California’s Democratic convention in 2008.
US Vice President Kamala Harris delivers the keynote speech at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th National Convention in Houston, Texas, on July 25, 2024. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
As Harris built her political career from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general and then senator, she was even dubbed “the female Obama” by some political analysts.
Obama went on to laud Harris’ political and legal career in California before her vice presidency during his DNC speech.
“As a prosecutor, Kamala stood up for children who had been victims of sexual abuse. As an attorney general of the most populous state in the country, she fought big banks and for-profit colleges, securing billions of dollars for the people they had scammed. After the home mortgage crisis, she pushed me and my administration hard to make sure homeowners got a fair settlement. Didn’t matter that I was a Democrat. Didn’t matter she had knocked on doors for my campaign in Iowa – she was going to fight to get as much relief as possible for the families who deserved it,” he said.
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 5: Former President Barack Obama hugs Vice President Kamala Harris during an event to mark the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House on April 5, 2022 in Washington, DC. With then-Vice President Joe Biden by his side, Obama signed ‘Obamacare’ into law on March 23, 2010. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
“Kamala Harris won’t be focused on her problems. She’ll be focused on yours. As president, she won’t just cater to her own supporters and punish those who refuse to kiss the ring or bend the knee. She’ll work on behalf of every American,” he continued.
“That’s who Kamala is. And in the White House, she will have an outstanding partner in Gov. Tim Walz.”
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Walz also has ties to Obama going back years. Obama, when he served as an Illinois senator, was one of the few high-profile Democrats in the nation to campaign for Walz at the dawn of his career in 2006. Walz was elected to the House where he served from 2007 to 2019, when he was sworn-in as governor of the Gopher State.
“I just remember standing on that stage, and we were coming off it, and there was someone there who was a supporter of mine who said, ‘Stop, let me take a picture,’” Walz said in 2017 of how Obama traveled to Minnesota to support him during his first congressional run in 2006.
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U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hold a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., August 20, 2024. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
The pair, as well as then-Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, took a photo together, which Walz framed and hanged in his house, he told the MinnPost in 2017.
“A future congressman, a future senator, and a future president,” Walz said he captioned the photo, noting that Obama was one of the few high-profile Democrats at the time to support him back in 2006.
Obama also took shots at former President Donald Trump during his speech, painting him as power hungry.
“The truth is, Donald Trump sees power as nothing more than a means to his ends. He wants the middle class to pay the price for another huge tax cut that would mostly help him and his rich friends. He killed a bipartisan immigration deal written in part by one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress that would have helped secure our southern border because he thought trying to actually solve the problem would hurt his campaign,” he said.
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“He doesn’t seem to care if more women lose their reproductive freedom since it won’t affect his life. And, most of all, Donald Trump wants us to think that this country is hopelessly divided between us and them, between the real Americans who, of course, support him, and the outsiders who don’t.”
Harris is slated to take the DNC stage on Thursday evening, when she will deliver her acceptance speech for the Democratic Party’s nomination before the DNC concludes.
Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report.