Washington: Joe Biden and Barack Obama are stepping up their attacks on President Donald Trump and defending their own time in the White House in a new video depicting their first in-person meeting since the coronavirus outbreak began.
Snippets offered by Biden’s campaign showed the pair wearing masks while arriving at an office, then sitting down well apart from each other to observe social distancing for a bare-faced chat.
The full video was posted on social media on Thursday, but teasers showed Biden and Obama discussing passing their administration’s signature health care law and blaming Donald Trump for stoking division and animosity among Americans from the moment he entered the 2016 presidential race.
They also were sharply critical of the Republican president’s efforts to combat a virus that has killed more than 140,000 Americans. Can you imagine standing up when you were president and saying, ‘It’s not my responsibility, I take no responsibility’? Biden says, offering a line of attack similar to his recent campaign speeches when he asserted that Trump quit on the country and has waved the white flag amid the pandemic.
Those words didn’t come out of our mouths while we were in office, Obama replies.
The former president largely stayed out of the once-crowded Democratic primary but endorsed Biden in April, when he was the last candidate standing. Obama hosted a virtual fundraiser for his former vice president last month that raised 7.6 million, the most of any Biden campaign event so far.
The meeting in the video and the Biden campaign promoting it to voters illustrates the larger role Obama is expected to play for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the months before November. (AP)