Hillary Clinton has officially entered the 2016 race for the White House, but she hasn’t won over the country’s top Democrat, President Barack Obama.
During Monday’s daily White House briefing when asked whether or not Hillary Clinton automatically gets Obama’s support, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “The answer to that question is no.”
Earnest laid out why, exactly, that the friendship between the President and his former secretary of state does not equate to an automatic endorsement.
“There are other people who are friends of the President, who may at some point decide to get into the race,” said Earnest, including, presumably, sitting Vice President Joe Biden.
“This will be the responsibility of Democratic voters to decide who should be the Democratic nominee for president,” he said. “I think that Democratic nominee can be confident that they’ll enjoy the support of President Obama in their campaign.”
Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigned against one another to win the 2008 Democratic nomination.
Obama’s win over Clinton paved they way to his 2008 presidential victory; they later mended fences and he tapped her to be his secretary of state.
