Barack Obama reportedly advocated against Democrats nominating then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of former President Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 presidential election — because he didn’t think Harris could win, according to an upcoming book.
The 44th president reportedly argued for an open convention rather than anointing Harris as the nominee after Biden’s shocking drop-out, despite her having support from other Democrats, according to reporter and co-author of “FIGHT: Inside the WIldest Battle for the White House,” Jonathan Allen.
“President Obama absolutely did not think that Joe Biden should continue, according to our sources close to President Obama and he also didn’t want Kamala Harris to be the replacement for Biden,” Allen said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Tuesday.
“He didn’t think that she was the best choice for Democrats, and he worked really behind the scenes for a long time to try to have a mini-primary, or an open convention, or a mini-primary leading to an open convention. [He] did not have faith in her ability to win the election,” Allen said.
“He was really working against her,” he emphasized.
Allen further revealed that on a phone call with the veep on the very day Biden “passed the baton” to Harris, Obama refused to endorse her candidacy as the nominee.
Obama’s reticence was apparently known amongst other Democrat power-players.
“In one moment, he had set up a phone call with Congressman [James] Clyburn from South Carolina on the day that Joe Biden handed off the baton to Kamala Harris, and Obama had set up a call with Clyburn for like 5:30 that afternoon. And Clyburn thought to himself, this guy is going to try to rope me into the open convection thing, I better get my endorsement of Harris out there fast so this is a short conversation,” Allen relayed of the backroom power dynamics.
Both the former president and former first lady Michelle Obama eventually did lend their support to Harris, but only five days after Biden announced he was no longer running.
“We told her we think she’ll make a fantastic President of the United States, and that she has our full support,” Obama said in his endorsement posted to X at the time, accompanying a video of a staged phone call.
