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President Biden said in a newly released interview he was campaigning with former Presidents Obama and Clinton because of “disinformation” that made it hard to get out his message.
The three presidents joined the “Smartless” podcast, hosted by actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, for an interview in March that wasn’t released until Monday. Biden was asked why it was even necessary to “have half a president” campaigning against former President Trump.
“Well, a lot has changed. A lot has changed in how you communicate. A lot has changed in information, and so much disinformation out there. You know, it’s really – and it’s hard to communicate even today when you do accomplish some improbable things,” Biden responded.
The podcast hosts praised the president for his accomplishments and told Clinton and Obama that they too “did amazing things” in office.
President Biden, along with former Presidents Clinton and Obama sat down for an interview with the “Smartless” podcast, which aired on April 29, 2024. (Left: (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images), center: Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Right: (Photo by John Nacion/WireImage))
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The “Smartless” hosts asked what the three presidents could do to get their message out.
“Just keep talking about it. You have to connect with people as to how they’re being affected, why it’s happening. And, you know, one of the things that really startles me is I’m optimistic. I’m genuinely optimistic,” Biden responded.
“And starting to break through. There’s so much we have opportunities to get done in ways that these guys [Obama and Clinton] set up and we’re now going to be able to close down. For example, when we got elected, we were told we couldn’t get anything done. We couldn’t get anything passed,” Biden said, before citing legislative accomplishments like the bipartisan infrastructure package.
Obama chimed in on the subject of getting information out as well and argued that the media ecosystem has changed.
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Former President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton. (Getty Images)
“Part of what happened is that whole ecosystem moved onto social media. And once it’s on social media and it’s on an algorithm, and everybody’s just getting their news selected essentially to suit their biases, penetrating that is real tough. It is very hard,” he added.
The two former presidents appeared alongside Biden at a fundraiser in March, which raised $25 million for his re-election bid, according to the president’s campaign.
Obama has reportedly expressed concerns in private over Trump’s chances and has urged the Biden campaign to step up its efforts.
The Washington Post reported in January that Obama had said he was concerned about the structure of Biden’s campaign, and suggested the president install some better decision makers at the Delaware headquarters.
Biden and Trump facing each other again in 2024 is the first presidential election rematch since 1956, when Democrat Adlai Stevenson lost again to Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.
