Tony Grist
The former President Barack Obama and the former First Lady Michelle Obama endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential run in a recorded phone call released Friday.
“I can’t have this phone call without saying to my girl Kamala: I am proud of you. This is going to be historic” the former first lady told Kamala in the video, before the former president continued, “We called to say Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you.”
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Obama had to date declined to endorse Harris after President Joe Biden’s decision not to run for reelection. “I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges,” Obama said at the time.
Close associates of the Obamas had spearheaded the behind-the-scenes moves to convince Biden to drop out. Notable among these were David Axelrod, a former Obama advisor, and George Clooney, an actor who is close with the Obamas. This led to media speculation that Obama was behind the move to force Biden off the Democratic ticket, with one even claiming that Clooney had given Obama advance notice of his New York Times op-ed calling for Biden to drop out. Obama has not publicly commented on his role in the ouster.
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