Barack Obama returns to White House, as Joe Biden strengthens Affordable Care Act
- Back for the first time in 5 years, the former leader jokingly addressed his successor as ‘vice-president’, while Biden said it ‘feels like the good old days’
- Obama’s appearance comes as Biden struggles with sagging poll numbers, inflation, the Ukraine war, and bleak prospects for Democrats at the midterm elections
US President Joe Biden welcomed Barack Obama back to the White House on Tuesday to mark a dozen years since passage of the healthcare law that Biden famously called a “big f**king deal”.
The former president returned to the White House for the first time since he welcomed Donald Trump on the morning of the 2017 inauguration. It is a pivotal moment in Biden’s presidency, as he struggles with sagging poll numbers, persistent inflation, a war raging in Ukraine and bleak prospects for Democrats in the November midterm elections.
The timing of Obama’s appearance, more than a year into Biden’s term, is a sign of the president’s desire to form a political identity separate from his time as Obama’s vice-president. But it also shows Biden is willing to seek advice about the challenges he faces from a predecessor that aides call a personal friend to the president.
“I heard some changes have been made,” Obama said, after jokingly addressing Biden as “vice-president”.
“There’s a cat running around, which I guarantee you Bo and Sunny would have been very unhappy about,” he said, referring to his two dogs.