Leah Mehlis via Reuters
United States – We take the same things and start over…or nearly. Barack Obama returned to the White House on Tuesday, April 5, for the first time since 2017, at the invitation of Joe Biden to talk about a topic they hold dear, access to health care in the United States.
As might be expected, the former president and the current president vied with jokes and collusion, reviving, at times disturbingly, a time when Barack Obama was president and Joe Biden II.
And so the first began his speech in the voice of “Vice President Biden,” which sparked the audience’s delight at this false misstep.
The second began with his remarks of “My name is Joe Biden and I’m Barack Obama’s Vice President,” before emphasizing, nostalgic, that the latter’s presence reminds him of “the good old days.”
The two men ate lunch together on Tuesday — as they did when Barack Obama was president, once a week, as Joe Biden does now with Vice President Kamala Harris. “We no longer know who should sit and where,” the current head of state joked.
“It’s good to be back in the White House,” said Barack Obama, who never set foot there after leaving the keys to Donald Trump.
The former president was invited to celebrate the most symbolic reform of his two terms: the “Affordable Care Act,” otherwise known as “Obamacare,” which has been in effect since March 2010.
A family photo of Democrats with Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, as Biden signs the Expansion of the Affordable Care Act to cover an additional 1 million Americans. He is absent from Harry Reid, the former Senate president, who died at the end of 2021. pic.twitter.com/QXbju2JVrL
– Philip Berry (@ptiberry) April 5 2022
He left the building more than five years ago, handing the keys to Donald Trump. Barack Obama first returned to the White House on Tuesday, at the invitation of Joe Biden, to talk about social protection. Photo #AFPTweet embedpic.twitter.com/QqFM2vX9kH
– Sebastian Blanc (@sebastienblanc) April 5 2022
He has not been there since January 20, 2017, when he handed power to Donald Trump. Barack Obama returns to the White House to celebrate 12 years of Obamacare. Here he is in the Oval Office with Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/wiRpndw9Et
– Theo Laubry 🇺🇸 (TheoLaubry) April 5 2022
“They are true friends”
At a time when Joe Biden had to bury the basics of his major social reforms, due to fierce Republican opposition and disagreements in the Democratic camp, Barack Obama insisted on reminding that he had great difficulty getting this legislation passed.
“Obamacare,” which at the time provoked strong Republican protests and continues to be for some conservatives too much state intrusion into Americans’ lives, was intended to reduce huge disparities in access to care through universal access to health insurance.
“I wanted to reform the health care system even if it cost me re-election and it almost took the bait at some point,” Barack Obama joked, adding that the legislation had not only “survived” repeated attempts to repeal it, particularly under Donald Trump, but had now become “popular.” Extremely”.
Joe Biden told him it was necessary to “strengthen” this system before signing a decree to improve care for members of the same family.
But this signing ceremony allowed the White House above all else to reveal a carefully crafted communication process about Barack Obama, whose mere presence en masse attracts journalists and cameras.
Joe Biden, seeking to regain political momentum ahead of the perilous legislative elections in November, was able to reenact what Americans called “bromance” (shrinking “brothers”, i.e. to say “boyfriend” and “romance”) of the two men, appeared This complicity throughout Obama’s mandate with hugs and jokes.
“They are true friends, not ‘modern friends from Washington,'” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki emphasized Monday, as personal relationships are driven above all by political or financial interests.
She promised that the appearance of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize would not be the last: “I think President Obama will come back here to reveal his official image and possibly on other occasions in the future.”
See also on HuffPost: Obama cheated on his biggest fan and his reaction was awesome