Politics

Biden claims he asked Obama not to endorse him for president

Joe Biden claimed in a new interview that he asked Barack Obama not to endorse his run for president — and called President Trump an “idiot” for saying Russian election interference is a “hoax.”

The former vice president appeared on “60 Minutes” Sunday where he was asked by anchor Norah O’Donnell if Obama, who he served with for eight years in the White House, offered to throw his full support behind the campaign.

“No, we didn’t even get there,” Biden responded. “I asked him not to. He said, ‘OK.'”

“I think it’s better — I think he thinks it’s better for me.”

But if he ends up as the 2020 Democratic nominee, Biden, 76, said he had “no doubt” that Obama would “be out on the campaign trail for me.”

The former Delaware senator was also asked about Facebook’s announcement on Monday that it had removed the accounts of several Russian trolls posing as Americans, many who were united in their opposition to Biden’s candidacy.

“The Russians don’t want me to be president and Trump doesn’t want me to be the nominee,” Biden said.

“Trump not only doesn’t want to do anything about [Russian interference] he’s going out and asking for help.”

He then called President Trump an “idiot” for calling Russian election interference a “hoax.”

“He’s an idiot — in terms of sayin’ that,” Biden said.

Trump repeatedly called former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election a “hoax.”

A White House spokesperson said in a statement to the outlet that Trump “takes election security seriously,” and has “delivered both offensive sanctions and defensive hardening of our election security.”

O’Donnell also brought up Trump’s calls for a probe into Hunter Biden’s work for Ukrainian energy giant Burisma Holdings. Hunter was paid at least $50,000 a month as a board member of the company, while his dad was vice president and overseeing US policy in Ukraine.

Biden said he “never discussed” his children’s business dealings “because they know where I have to do my job and that’s it and they have to make their own judgments.”

“And he’s a grown man. And it turns out he did not do a single thing wrong, as everybody’s investigated,” Biden said.

The presidential hopeful was also asked about his many gaffes, including confusing Syria with Iraq in an October debate.

“I don’t worry about the gaffes,” Biden said.

“And, you know what, the American people know who Joe Biden is. I mean, if he misspeaks one word, they don’t– that doesn’t affect the way they’re gonna vote, one way or the other.