I know it’s a popular myth in conservative circles that Obama put Biden in the White House. Actually some of the same leftist backers put both men in the White House. They’re surrounded by a lot of the same people because of that. But Obama kept Biden from running in 2016 and repeatedly undermined him and refused to endorse him in 2020.

Instead, Obama tried to kickstart a humiliatingly failed bid by Deval Patrick, seeing him as a mini-Obama. That helped kill his party standing.

And Obama is back to undermining Biden as yet another political book suggests he even wanted to dump him in 2012.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden had such a “fraught relationship” that Obama wanted to drop Biden from the 2012 Democratic ticket, according to excerpts from a new book obtained by the Daily Mail.

Obama considered replacing his vice president with Hillary Clinton, leaving Biden “distraught,” according to The Long Alliance by Gabriel Debenedetti. Obama eventually stuck with Biden, though he was furious at his veep’s decision to blurt out the administration’s support for gay marriage, an announcement Obama wanted to make.

Biden’s actions were “tantamount to betrayal” and “an example of Biden trying to position himself in front of the president,” the book says, with staffers saying that “we can’t trust [Biden] to say his lines.”

For his part, Biden said he was “not going to grovel to this guy,” referring to Obama. “My manhood is not negotiable.”

Some of this isn’t new, some of it is. It’s plausible that Obama might have wanted to create a smooth transition for Hillary. He kept Biden from running in 2016, but having Hillary as VP might have given her more of a leg up and rigged the primaries further. Obama might have thought that Biden would be dead weight in a challenging campaign.

The real question though is why tell us this now? 

The book is being put out by Henry Holt and Gabriel Debenedetti has spent a while covering Obama. The book wouldn’t exist without Obama inner circle people talking to him. And they would choose what to say. Putting out a damaging narrative like this is a deliberate kneecapping effort. Obama has been Biden’s biggest asset, but it’s been a one-sided relationship. Biden begged for his endorsement in the 2020 primaries and didn’t get it. Now Obama seems to be joining in the effort to bring him down.