REPORT: Obama Holding Secret Meetings With President Biden, 'Anxious' About Democrat Chances In November

Former President Barack Obama is reportedly "anxious" about President Joe Biden's re-election chances in November. 45th President Donald Trump has continued to dominate national and swing state polls in recent months, prompting the 44th president to hold secret strategy meetings at the White House with the 81-year-old Democrat incumbent.

According to a report from New York Magazine, Obama met with Biden in December last year to discuss his re-election and the various policy issues plaguing his presidency. The meeting, which was only known by need-to-know staffers at the White House, reportedly focused on moving some of Biden's top advisors to his campaign headquarters in Delaware. While Obama has freely given his advice to Biden in private, he has been unwilling to criticize the president's campaign in public, given that it would likely not help Democrats in their cause to hold the presidency and retake full control of Congress.

Despite this, a close friend told New York Magazine that "his anxiety about the election is real," given that the country has become increasingly divided, the media landscape increasingly fractured, and Donald Trump's lead in the polls. While Biden campaign officials were unwilling to bring in Biden's former boss onto the campaign in 2020, Obama became a much more active surrogate in the last few months of the campaign to unseat President Trump. This time around, the Biden campaign has brought in the 44th president more frequently to rally support and donations to the cause.

President Obama has held two joint fundraisers in recent months, with the first being in New York City with Obama, Biden, and former President Bill Clinton in attendance, raising tens of millions of dollars for the campaign. A second fundraiser with the two men held in Los Angeles with celebrities raised a staggering $26 million and was Obama's second major campaign event with Biden. The 62-year-old former president has also recorded nearly a dozen video advertisements for the campaign and is expected to ramp up his participation in the campaign in the coming months.

Obama's anxiety about the upcoming presidential election isn't unwarranted, given Trump's strength in the polls for the past few months. A recent Emerson College survey, which interviewed 1,000 registered voters for each state, revealed a significant trend with Trump leading Biden in every swing state and being tied with the incumbent Democrat in Minnesota. This is a crucial development, as Trump has a strong four-point lead in Arizona (47 percent to 43 percent) and in Georgia (45 percent to 41 percent), while he has a three-point lead over Biden in Wisconsin (47 percent to 44 percent) and Nevada (46 percent to 43 percent). The 45th president also leads the 81-year-old Democrat in Pennsylvania by two points (47 percent to 45 percent) and one point in Michigan (46 percent to 45 percent). The poll also found that President Trump could defeat Biden in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, with both men holding 45 percent support. 

Americans can expect President Obama to be on the campaign trail with Biden more often in the coming months, but it may be too little or too late. The former president could not get Hillary Clinton across the finish line in 2016. While he was instrumental in securing Biden's election in 2020, the national landscape has shifted dramatically in the past four years. President Biden's record speaks for itself, and the American people won't be convinced otherwise by Barack Obama.

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