Barack Obama is the former president to whom President Joe Biden speaks most often, with a top White House aide saying the duo chats “regularly.”
During a February town hall event, Biden said that he had talked with every living former commander in chief since taking office, except one.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was again asked on Thursday just how often her boss speaks to his former boss.
“They are not just former colleagues. I guess you would call them as president and vice president. They also remain close friends,” she told reporters.
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Psaki described their conversations as happening “regularly” and covering “a range of issues, from policy issues to bouncing ideas off of each other to their families.”
“So they are in close touch,” she added. “We just don’t read out those calls. We keep them private.”
The president has also been tight-lipped about his conversations with previous White House occupants.
I’ve spoken, there’s only one I haven’t spoken to,” he told reporters outside the White House after that February town hall.
When asked to name which of the four living former presidents he has not heard from, Biden declined to answer.
“No,” he said before heading into the executive mansion.
Sitting presidents frequently rely on past chief executives for advice — or just a knowing ear to vent about perhaps the most difficult job in the world.
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Obama, for instance, was highly critical of George W. Bush on the campaign trail in 2008, but phoned him regularly once in office.
Former President Donald Trump said multiple times while in office he had not spoken to any of the former presidents, saying he did not need their advice.
But Biden was a senator for over three decades and has relationships with all four living former presidents, but especially Obama. The 44th president gave Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom just before leaving office.
