Barack Obama and Joe Biden had such a "fraught relationship" that Obama wanted to drop Biden from the 2012 Democratic ticket, according to excerpts from a new book obtained by the Daily Mail.
Obama considered replacing his vice president with Hillary Clinton, leaving Biden "distraught," according to The Long Alliance by Gabriel Debenedetti. Obama eventually stuck with Biden, though he was furious at his veep's decision to blurt out the administration's support for gay marriage, an announcement Obama wanted to make.
Biden's actions were "tantamount to betrayal" and "an example of Biden trying to position himself in front of the president," the book says, with staffers saying that "we can't trust [Biden] to say his lines."
For his part, Biden said he was "not going to grovel to this guy," referring to Obama. "My manhood is not negotiable."
While mainstream media said for years that Obama and Biden had a "bromance," with NBC News describing them as "lifelong friends," this is far from the first indication that the two men did not like each other.
"Don't underestimate Joe's ability to fuck things up," Obama told a fellow Democrat during the 2020 presidential primary. He also urged Biden not to run in the 2016 election, again expressing support for Clinton.
While rumors about Obama dropping Biden were swirling in 2012, many media sources pooh-poohed the notion, with then-NPR political editor Ken Rudin dismissing it as a story that is "not grounded in reality" and "makes us look silly."
The bad blood between Biden and Obama dates back to when the two first met, the book says.
As a senator, Obama thought Biden was "condescending" and bemoaned his future vice president's tendency to "ramble, clearly loving every minute of it."
"Shoot. Me. Now," Obama wrote to a staffer when Biden started to speak.
When Biden ran for president in 2020, Obama worried that his former veep wasn't up to the job.
Obama thought Biden seemed "tired," the book recounts, and worried that a Biden run would be "unthinkably painful."