NYT: Obama May Endorse Clinton ‘As Early as This Week’

The New York Times Reports President Obama ‘Now Ready to Aggressively Campaign for Hillary Clinton’

President Barack Obama is anxious and ready to endorse, support, and campaign for Hillary Clinton, and may do so “as early as this week,” The New York Times reports.

“He has indicated he wants to spend a lot of time on the campaign trail, so when it’s time to do that, we’ll go out guns ablazing,” President Obama’s communications director Jennifer Psaki told the Times in an interview. “We are actively thinking through how to use the president on the campaign trail — what works for the nominee, what works for him, and how to utilize his strengths and his appeal.”

The Times says the White House is in “active conversations” with the Clinton campaign, is “impatient,” and “ready to aggressively campaign” for the Democratic frontrunner. The paper reports advisers “say he is taking nothing for granted,” and add the President on Friday told donors, “I want us to run scared the whole time.” 

Obama is “particularly enthusiastic, aides said, about taking on Mr. Trump,” the Times adds. Noting the GOP presumptive nominee “has personally offended the president with his conduct on the campaign trail,” the paper points to Trump’s comment on Friday to an attendee whom he called, “my African-American over here.”

The Times also mentions the President’s high approval rating of 50 percent, contrasting it with President George W. Bush’s which was at 20 percent leading up to the November election in 2008.

 

Photo: Then-Senator Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on June 27, 2008
Image by Marc Nozell via Flickr and a CC license