Although the former president has not commented publicly on the field of candidates vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, a new report from The New York Times indicates that Obama has privately been coaching some of the leading contenders on how to take on President Donald Trump.
According to the Times, key Obama-era officials convened a sort-of “audition” earlier this year in Washington, D.C., where they spoke to presidential hopefuls like “Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH),” about how they plan to run their races, and what message their individual candidacies send to the American people.
Obama, the Times reports, was careful to avoid the event, preferring too allow some of his former top aides to assess the field of candidates and report back, and he won’t be offering an endorsement, preferring instead “to let the primary unfold as a contest of ideas.”
But that doesn’t mean the former president is steering clear of the primaries altogether. Like failed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, Obama has been taking audiences with prospective nominees and giving them advice on how to handle a national campaign. So far, he’s believed to have spoken to Harris, Booker, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and some more unfamiliar potential candidates, like his former Attorney General, Eric Holder, who says he’s waiting until later in the process to decide whether to toss his hat into the ring.
Former Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke admitted to Oprah, in his landmark interview with the daytime talk queen, that he’d pursued Obama’s advice in a sit down last year.- READ MORE