Barack Obama avoids endorsing Kamala Harris as Biden’s successor

Following Joe Biden’s resignation to seek re-election in the upcoming November elections, Barack Obama, former President of the United States, asked the Democratic Party in a statement to nominate an “extraordinary candidate” in which he avoided endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, Vice President, as a future candidate.

Obama called current President Joe Biden, who was his vice president from 2009 to 2017, “a patriot of the first order” for having abandoned his re-election campaign today after weeks of internal pressure for his disastrous role in the electoral debate against former Republican President Donald Trump.

“We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead, but I have enormous confidence that our party’s leaders will be able to create a process that will produce an extraordinary candidate,” Obama said.

The former president called for “Joe Biden’s vision of a prosperous and united America” ​​to be showcased at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next August, where the party could nominate its candidate for the election.

“I hope that each and every one of us is prepared to carry that message of hope and progress in November,” he added.

Obama, however, did not mention Kamala Harris in the statement, whom Biden supports as his successor to face Trump on November 5.

The former president participated in several fundraising events for the Biden and Harris campaigns, but in recent weeks several leaks pointed to him as one of the operators who were trying to get the Democratic leader to throw in the towel.

Tensions rose when former Obama advisers, now hosts of the popular podcast “Pod Save America,” suggested that Biden should step down. This was interpreted, rightly or wrongly, as a message coming from the former president’s inner circle.

The rift between the two Democratic leaders dates back to 2016, when Obama favored the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, who had been his secretary of state, over that of his then vice president.

In Sunday’s statement, Obama said Biden’s resignation is a testament to the president’s “love for his country” and “a historic example of a public servant putting the interests of the American people before his own.”