Lingering tensions between the Biden and Obama teams broke into the open this week when the former president\u2019s close political adviser David Axelrod said President Biden should consider stepping aside from reelection for the sake of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Biden White House chief of staff and longtime Biden confidant Ron Klain shot back, complaining about past pointed criticisms of the president from Axelrod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White House aides brushed aside Axelrod\u2019s comments, pointing out former President Obama was in a difficult polling situation a year ahead of his reelection race and still won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the criticism, and media attention on a New York Times\/Sienna College poll showing Biden behind Trump in five swing-states, which prompted Axelrod\u2019s remarks, were clearly an annoyance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House released a memo days later criticizing the media\u2019s focus on one poll a year out from the election, while noting polls and pundits had predicted a 2022 \u201cred wave\u201d for the midterms that never materialized.
A Biden White House alum described a collective Biden World \u201ceye roll\u201d when a \u201cDemocratic talking head\u201d makes remarks like Axelrod\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAny time someone lights up the White House, the campaign, or the administration but doesn\u2019t have to do any real work, there\u2019s sort of an eye roll effect. Like maybe roll up in your sleeves and get in the arena,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The alum, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly, said Axelrod should have kept his comments to himself, given the former Obama adviser broadly thinks Biden has done a good job as president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSure, there are a million things you can criticize the administration about in any day. But on the whole, David Axelrod, you think Biden is doing a good job, but maybe keep your 10 percent opinion quiet when the 90 percent is he\u2019s doing a good job,\u201d the alum said. \u201cWhy do you have an innate ability to focus on the 10 percent?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But whenever there is piercing criticism of Biden from someone in ObamaWorld, there will be attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sources from both the Obama and Biden camps told The Hill that while there has been strain over the years, there is also respect and support. And sources suggested Axelrod doesn\u2019t represent the old boss\u2019s whole team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What was described as a collective eye roll was a reminder of old tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden for eight years served as Obama\u2019s vice president, yet former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the Democratic candidate in 2016 \u2014 not the vice president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden wrote in his 2017 book, \u201cPromise Me, Dad,\u201d that Obama \u201chad been subtly weighing in against,\u201d a White House run in 2015 and he believed at the time that Obama concluded Clinton would be the nominee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his 2023 book on Biden, \u201cThe Last Politician,\u201d author Franklin Foer wrote about how Biden made an effort to extend empathy and respect for his vice president, Kamala Harris, because he wasn\u2019t always granted that when he served in the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[B]iden wanted to treat Harris with the respect that he felt Barack Obama hadn\u2019t accorded him,\u201d Foer wrote. \u201cHe a made a point of referring to her as the vice president, as opposed to my vice president. He was a stickler for asking her opinion in meetings\u2014 and making sure that her office was kept in the loop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea that Biden is constantly underestimated by his party, by the media and by some Obama alumni is a running theme of this presidency, say sources who spoke to The Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrior to [Axelrod\u2019s] comments, there was always tension between the staff at all levels. There\u2019s a tension there between the two camps, for sure, that has always existed,\u201d said a former staffer for the Biden 2020 campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A former Obama administration aide agreed \u201cthere\u2019s always tension there\u201d and described the Obama-Biden aides dynamic as a result of an Obama White House that had \u201csharp elbows\u201d and an inner circle that was \u201cdifficult to penetrate\u201d for Biden\u2019s team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got lots of egos, and so there is the warmup folks and then the main show. The undercard and the main event. There\u2019s always that dynamic between the presidency and the vice presidency staff,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former Biden 2020 campaign alum described a preoccupation at Biden\u2019s campaign headquarters in Philadelphia that year with \u201cPod Save America,\u201d a podcast run by former Obama staffers, including Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEveryone in Philadelphia was a little obsessed with those guys because they were always shitting on Biden and giving the benefit of the doubt to other candidates,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, several sources who spoke to The Hill downplayed the impact of any friction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI do think that there\u2019s still a lot of respect that\u2019s there,\u201d said one source who served on Obama\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Axelrod has gotten under Biden\u2019s skin before. He\u2019s a fixture on social media and cable television whose success as a political analyst is in part reflected by his willingness to offer tough criticism of his own party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Foer outlined in his book that Biden felt Axelrod didn\u2019t give him \u201ca fair shake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe complained that there weren\u2019t enough surrogates on television defending him. One of his fixations was David Axelrod\u2019s appearances of CNN. He was part of the Obama in crowd, and Biden complained to a friend that he still didn\u2019t get a fair shake from the guy,\u201d Foer wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former Biden 2020 campaign aide said Axelrod\u2019s comments probably fired up the Biden team, saying it puts junior staff in a competitive position they love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey like being in the position to say, \u2018You all thought we couldn\u2019t win the primary, you all thought we couldn\u2019t beat Trump, you thought there was a red wave coming, you thought he couldn\u2019t bring back bipartisanship,\u2019\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other voices The Hill spoke to emphasized that Axelrod doesn\u2019t speak for Obama or many on his team. Axelrod has since said that it\u2019s overreacting to say he told Biden to drop out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Obama adviser Jim Messina, who often shares his support for Biden through social media and punditry, went on CNN on Monday to dismiss the recent negative polls, giving a nod to Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another former Biden White House aide told The Hill the Biden and Obama teams are in touch \u201con an almost daily basis\u201d and that Obama\u2019s team has largely come to defend and support the current president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy sense is that\u2019s just a theme that\u2019s been kind of repeated across the Biden administration, that this administration has been underestimated. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a reflection or a nudge to the Obama team,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obama this week has been touting the work of the Biden administration on artificial intelligence. In June, and the former president participated in two fundraising videos for Biden\u2019s reelection campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around that time, his adviser Eric Schultz put out a statement about how Obama \u201clooks forward to supporting Democrats up and down the ballot next fall, and no race has bigger stakes than President Biden\u2019s reelection.\u201d He added that the Obama team is \u201cdeliberate in picking our moments\u201d because their \u201cobjective is to move the needle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of the people who work or worked for Biden are Obama alumni. That includes Klain, who helped Obama with debate prep in 2008 and was later his Ebola czar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden\u2019s current chief of staff, Jeff Zients, was director of the National Economic Council for Obama, and his campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, worked for the Obama administration as deputy director of public engagement. His previous campaign manger, Jen O\u2019Malley Dillon, who is now Biden\u2019s deputy chief of staff, worked on Obama\u2019s 2012 campaign as deputy campaign manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One aide who worked for both presidents agreed there are sometimes tensions, but said they are easily put aside \u2014 especially after an electoral success like the one Democrats notched on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose tensions feel a lot more tangential following a Tuesday night like we just had. Playing around the margins about what you think and want the Democratic Party to be, all of that is fine when you win like we won Tuesday night,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates denied there are any tensions between the Biden and Obama camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo one has been a stronger supporter of the Biden-Harris Administration and its agenda than President Obama, his team, and veterans of the Obama-Biden Administration,\u201d Bates said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n