President Obama backs the promise to help middle-class Americans in the video announcing Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, though he will continue to keep his powder dry and not support anyone until the Democrats choose their candidate.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Monday that Clinton’s assertion in the video that middle-class Americans across the country are still struggling echoes his own feelings and recent message.
“The president would raise the same concerns,” Earnest said. “There is more that we can do to invest in the middle class … there is more that we can do to invest in our infrastructure … and more we can do to our tax code” to help out average Americans.
The president, as he indicated in recent interviews, believes Clinton was a “very effective” campaigner on his behalf during the general election in 2008 and an excellent secretary of state, Earnest said.
“The two of them have become friends, but there are other people who are friends of the president who may decide to get into the race,” he said without mentioning the possibility of Vice President Joe Biden jumping into the 2016 contest.
“The president has not offered up any type of endorsement,” he continued. “It’s for Democratic voters to decide who they want as their Democratic nominee … [once chosen] I think that Democratic nominee can be confident of the president’s support.”
