Biden campaign "aligned" with Obama, despite his reported criticisms
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President Biden's principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said Sunday that Biden and former President Obama are "aligned" in their thinking about Biden's re-election campaign.
Why it matters: Fulks' remarks come in response to many high-level Democrats, including Obama, expressing concerns that Biden and his re-election team are too complacent about the threat of losing to former President Trump, Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen report.
Catch up quick: The latest alarm was sounded Saturday in a leak to The Washington Post about a private meeting in which Obama pointed Biden to a different way to approach his re-election campaign, VandeHei and Allen write.
- Obama had also pushed Biden to consider moving his political operation outside of — and beyond — his White House advisers, the two note.
What he's saying: "We're gonna continue to do what we need to do in order to be competitive and in order to make sure we're growing the infrastructure that we need to win," Fulks said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday when asked his response to Obama's concerns regarding Trump.
- Fulks said Obama and Biden "talk frequently," in addition to "the campaign and former operatives from President Biden's administration and his campaign."
- "The president has been very clear that the experience he got as VP serving with President Obama has been critical to the experience that he brings to the job and what he's been able to accomplish," Fulks said.
- Fulks added that the respective campaigns are "united in the fact that we have to do everything we can to push back on Donald Trump and the threat that he poses to democracy."
Asked whether the campaign would see Obama's warning as a wake-up call, Fulks said they have "been awake" since Biden announced his re-election campaign and have "put innovative organizing programs in place to begin to communicate with voters on the ground."
Zoom out: Trump continues to dominate polls, both in and out of his party.
- A Wall Street Journal poll from last month found Trump ahead of Biden in a hypothetical matchup.
- Biden has recently seen some of his lowest approval ratings yet as he bids for another four years in the White House.
Go deeper: Behind the Curtain: Why Obama, Dems fear Biden complacency
