Former president Barack Obama called his former running mate Joe Biden Sunday to congratulate him on a big win in the South Carolina 2020 primary, according to multiple reports.
Biden captured nearly half of the electorate in Saturday’s South Carolina primary with 48.4 percent of the overall vote, and also won 61 percent of the black vote in a state where over half of the population is African American. Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), who leads the field in national polling, finished second with 19.9 percent of the overall vote.
Sources told Bloomberg that it is still unlikely that Obama will endorse Biden or any 2020 candidate until after the primary, and that the former president’s role is to help unite the party in the run-up to the general election to unseat President Trump.
Obama and Biden have reportedly had a contentious relationship in the Democratic primary, with Biden insisting early in the race last year that he did not want the former president’s endorsement.
“I didn’t want it to look like he was putting his thumb on the scale here. And that, you know, I’m gonna do this based on who I am, not by the president going out and trying to say, ‘This is the guy you should be with,’” Biden said during an interview on The View in April.
A lengthy Politico piece in November revealed that Obama reportedly said Biden “really doesn’t have it” in respect to inspiring the electorate in early primary states, especially Iowa.
Biden was also reportedly disappointed that his former boss did not publicly defend him during impeachment against President Trump’s accusation that Hunter Biden leveraged his father’s position to enrich himself in Ukraine.