Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren has plans. All the plans. She’s got a plan to tackle corruption in Washington; a plan to fund HBCUs; a plan to curb climate change and create over 10 million jobs. It’s as if Warren has been the only successful woman in America’s history to rock both Gucci and Louie at the same damn time.
One thing Warren may not have planned for was a push behind the scenes by none of then The Root’s Forever President, Barack Obama.
See, Warren is anti-big-money throwing cash at her campaign, and as such she’s turned away many of the donor class’ largest donations. But President (he’s still our president until further notice) Obama knows that in order to win a presidency, it takes money. And while Warren has sworn off big dollars, Obama has reportedly been working behind the scenes to convince donors that, while Warren refuses to play nice with Wall Street, she still needs that money.
From the Hill:
The former president has stopped short of an endorsement of Warren in these conversations and has emphasized that he is not endorsing in the Democratic primary race.
But he also has vouched for her credentials, making it clear in these private sessions that he deems her a capable candidate and potential president, sources say.
“He’s asked all of the candidates who have sought his advice three questions: Is your family behind you? Why you? And why now? She checked the box for all, said one longtime Obama ally,” the Hill reports.
“I think he feels licensed to give an opinion on her because he’s ‘hired’ her.”
President Obama hasn’t endorsed her. But you know who isn’t feeling any of this? Former vice president and destroyer of infamous rabble-rouser Corn Pop, Joe Biden. Biden is a scrub and not in a shitty political candidate way (well, he’s totally a scrub in that way); he’s more of a scrub in the “hanging out of the passenger side of his best friend’s ride…” kind of way. He’s the friend who orders bottles to the table because he knows Obama’s going to pay. The friend who uses Obama’s quotes on all of his IG posts. Shit like, “The cynics may be the loudest voices but I promise you they accomplish the least” or “Haters will say it’s photoshopped.”
So it’s a safe assumption that if there are rumors that Obama is cozying up to Warren, then Biden is currently in his feelings.
“He obviously thinks she’s very smart,” one Democratic donor said of Obama’s feelings about Warren, who in 2010 became an assistant to the president and special adviser to the secretary of the Treasury. “He thinks her policy ideas matter. And I think he sees her running the campaign with the most depth.”
You know who else might feel a way? Julián Castro, who was the secretary for housing and urban development under Obama.
A source close to Obama told the Hill not to read too far into it, noting that he’d do this for any of the Democratic candidates who needed his help, pointing to comments Obama made last month.
“Look, we have a field that is very accomplished, very serious and passionate and smart people who have a history of public service, and whoever emerges from the primary process, I will work my tail off to make sure that they are the next president,” the former president said during a Democracy Alliance event in Washington, the Hill reports.