Fox News analyst Brit Hume believes that the White House may be perturbed at former President Obama after he led President Joe Biden off stage at a fundraiser.
Hume disputed many in conservative media who believe that the president froze at the event, but the optics of the former president leading him off stage did not do the president any favors, he believes.
“Let’s talk about the top Republicans and the NRCC chair and the Speaker of the House going to Mar-a-Lago to get on the same page with former President Trump. How do you see it?” host Mike Emanuel said.
“What is striking to me, Mike, is the former president is acting in a way that I don’t believe he ever has before. He is aligning himself again and again with the Republican establishment on the Hill. He has stuck up for Mike Johnson repeatedly. He is — another single example is in the state of Maryland, he has endorsed Larry Hogan a man who says he will not vote for Trump. And you see in this case of Congressman Good in Virginia. He would have been someone who is considered an obvious person for Trump to support and yet he is going against him,” Hume said.
“So I think this is — the president is showing a streak of practicality and pragmatism in his recent behavior that we may not have seen in him before and it will be interesting to see if it lasts. So far it seems to be for the purpose of uniting the Republican party, uniting himself and his campaign with the Republican party elected officials. You know, with the exception of a few incumbents who he is opposing. Very interesting,” he said.
“To the other side of the 2024 race at the White House, press briefing today, there was a lot about a video that came up over the weekend of former President Obama kind of guiding President Biden off the stage. Let me play the sound from the White House press secretary and I will get your analysis from there, Brit,” Emanual noted before showing the clip of the press secretary.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: He said this did not happen in the sense of what people were saying they were seeing. Right? Or what was being falsely reported that they were seeing. Let’s not forget, President Obama, President Biden have a relationship. They are friends.
“Brit, what do you make of this controversy?” the host said.
“Well, this is complicated, Mike. For one thing, there have been a number of videos showing the president looking like he is completely out of it. There’s no question about that. In this particular one, what you are seeing on the screen right now has been cast as Obama freezing. I mean, Biden freezing and former President Obama having to lead him off the stage,” the analyst said.
“I have looked at that video a number of times. I don’t see that. I see President Biden applauding, showing a complete awareness of what is going on around him. And for a moment he sort of stands and stares and absorbs the applause from the audience. That lasted 7 or 8 seconds at which point President Obama rather ostentatiously reaches over, grabs his wrist and leads him off the stage and rather patronizingly puts his arm around him as they are walking off together,” said Hume.
“I would imagine that if members of the Biden inner circle happen to see this and I’m sure have by now, they are annoyed with Barack Obama for acting in a way that it was not at all clear in that moment that he needed to act. That’s where that lands,” Hume continued.
“Despite what Karine Jean-Pierre was saying what great friends they are. The truth is there has long been a lot of strain in their relationship with President Obama and President Biden. He has said some very unflattering things privately, has Obama about Biden. Most notably, never underestimate the ability of Joe Biden to F things off, except he didn’t say F. That gives you the sense of it. A patronizing gesture on his part is no surprise. Yet, their relationship was outwardly good. But I think that underneath that is a lot of strain and tension and resentment, particularly on Biden’s part of Obama,” he said.
