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Obama Reportedly Tried to Talk Biden Out of 2020 Run: 'You Don't Have to Do This, Joe'

[link:https://www.mediaite.com/obama/obama-reportedly-tried-to-talk-biden-out-of-2020-run-you-dont-have-to-do-this-joe/|

By Morgan PhillipsAug 16th, 2019, 12:31 pm

President Barack Obama reportedly tried to talk Sen. Joe Biden out of a presidential run just before he declared his candidacy, according to a New York Times report.

“You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t,” Obama told Biden earlier this year, according to a source at the Times.

The two had spoken at least half a dozen times before Biden ultimately decided to run. “Obama took pains to cast his doubts about the campaign in personal terms,” said the Times article.

In 2016, Obama also quietly pressured Biden to sit out the race, partly because he thought Hillary Clinton had a better chance of building on his agenda and partly because he did not think Biden was emotionally equipped to handle the race just after the 2015 death of his son Beau Biden.

Trump administration seeks to reauthorise spying programme that records Americans' phone and text re

Source: Independent

Trump administration seeks to reauthorise spying programme that records Americans’ phone and text records
USA Freedom Act, which Edward Snowden revealed, allows the NSA to access private communications

Charlie Savage
1 hour ago

The Trump administration has broken its long silence on a high-profile National Security Agency programme that sifts records of Americans’ telephone calls and text messages in search of terrorists on Thursday.

They acknowledged for the first time that the system has been indefinitely shut down — but asked congress to extend its legal basis anyway.

In a letter to congress delivered on Thursday and obtained by The New York Times, the administration urged lawmakers to make the USA Freedom Act permanent, being the legal authority for the National Security Agency to gain access to logs of Americans’ domestic communications.

The law, enacted after the intelligence contractor Edward Snowden revealed the existence of the programme in 2013, is set to expire in December, but the Trump administration wants it made lasting.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-administration-spying-phone-text-records-usa-freedom-act-edward-snowden-a9062771.html