Former President Barack Obama called on digital influencers to leverage their vast online audiences on TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms to help win President Biden’s reelection campaign despite their political differences.
The former president, whom Biden served as vice president, told influencers that while they may not agree with all of Biden’s policies, they should get behind them anyway.
“Joe Biden, you may not agree with everything he does,” Obama said Saturday at a campaign fundraiser for Biden in Los Angeles. According to Axios“Now, you didn’t agree with everything I did. But that’s okay, because in a country as big and messy and complicated as this one, disagreements are going to happen.”
“I want you to make an impact. It doesn’t have to be boring,” Obama told them.
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Former President Barack Obama called on social media influencers to use their vast online audiences to help win the reelection campaign of President Biden, who served two terms as Obama’s vice president. (Getty)
“I don’t think we need to have a ton of charts and graphs,” he said.
Obama added that he may need to use “humor” to keep people engaged as they swipe through TikTok videos and Instagram Reels.
The Biden administration has faced sharp criticism from the left, particularly from college students and younger voters, over its handling of the Israel-Hamas war, and the massive student protests that erupted at prestigious universities such as Columbia have highlighted continuing divisions within the Democratic Party.
President Obama acknowledged that social media audiences are often not interested in partisan politics.
“We live in cynical times,” he told Axios, “and I think, quite frankly, a lot of the people who watch you and listen to you and are your fans are often tired of the political debate.”
“I get it,” Obama told the group, also offering some insight into his own media consumption: “To be honest with you, I mostly watch sports, because everything feels like a slash-and-burn market.”
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The Biden campaign said the fundraiser, held in Los Angeles on Saturday, “has already raised more than $28 million and counting, making it the largest fundraiser in Democratic Party history.” (Getty Images)
“But given Joe Biden’s fundamental trajectory, what he believes in his heart, nine times out of 10, he’s going to make a decision that’s consistent with your deepest beliefs,” Obama said.
According to the Biden campaign, Biden’s fundraiser in Los Angeles “has already raised more than $28 million, making it the largest fundraiser in Democratic Party history.”
That exceeds the $26 million raised by a fundraiser held in March at Radio City Music Hall in New York City featuring Biden, Obama and former President Clinton.
A New York Times/Siena College poll conducted in April found that former President Trump was losing ground to Biden among younger voters, whose support among young voters had fallen 14 points between the 2020 election results and April.
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The Biden campaign said it had no comment.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
