politics
After Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, Joe Biden spoke to President Barack Obama and essentially slapped him with an 'I told you so'.
Obama famously endorsed Clinton that year as the de facto candidate for a third term over Biden, eschewing the loyalty the then-Vice President displayed during his two terms in the White House.
According to a new book by authors Hunter Walker and Luppe B. Luppen. Truce: Progressives, Centrists, and the Future of the Democratic PartyObama and Biden were watching the election results when it became clear that Donald Trump would beat Clinton.
The mood turned to “sadness”, according to an excerpt from the Daily Mail.
According to multiple sources, Biden picked up the phone, called Obama, and said: Her people don’t like her.”
Related: Anti-war heckler disrupts Hillary Clinton's speech at Institute of World Politics forum.
Biden: People just don't like Hillary
Biden’s assessment that people “just don’t like” Hillary Clinton is an understatement. But it was also the last time he told the truth about her fellow Democrat.
The statement confirms the fact that Biden, who always campaigned as a likable, grassroots, blue-collar “Scranton Joe” or “Uncle Joe,” valued being grassroots as a political tactic.
And he was right. Clinton's unfavorable public perception played a major role in her loss to Trump. But it wasn't just her problem.
The new book also sheds light on how Biden knew something was wrong after appearing on behalf of Clinton in Wisconsin. She lost by a slim margin and she decided not to campaign on her own.
“I felt really bad,” Biden said after the event.
For all the chatter about Biden being the villain of the Democratic Party, even he knew that Clinton couldn't and wouldn't win in 2016. Obama, by contrast, was fortunately unaware of this.
RELATED: Hillary Clinton says she takes Trump 'at his word': 'He's going to be a dictator on day one.'
Obama paved the way for Joe in 2020
According to the author TruceWhere they once caused Joe to drop out of the presidential race, Obama and his team helped propel Biden to replace Bernie Sanders in 2020.
Sanders has often criticized the Democratic primary process and suggested it was rigged in Clinton's favor.
And, according to the book, Obama engaged in “backdoor power games that Sanders and progressives could see as corrupt” by ousting former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). It paved the way for Biden in the race.
“This was a much bigger deal: The party's most beloved figure is trying to end the primary and prevent a progressive revolution,” the authors write, adding that almost everyone agrees that Obama's rise to power is a bitter and divisive topic. He pointed out that he declined to comment for that reason.
Truce It's scheduled to hit shelves this Tuesday and promises to reveal that “Democrats have been at war with themselves for a long time” before coming together to defeat Trump in 2020.