#Barack Obama appears in virtual fundraiser for Joe Biden

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Former President Barack Obama and his Vice President Joe Biden
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Barack Obama threw his full weight behind former veep Joe Biden during a virtual fundraiser on Tuesday night — raising millions for his former running mate in his first full-fledged foray into the 2020 presidential race.

“I am here to say the help is on the way if we do the work because there’s nobody I trust more to be able to heal this country and get back on track than my dear friend Joe Biden,” Obama said.

Without addressing President Trump, Obama accused Republicans of sewing divisions in the American public.

“What we have seen over the last couple of years is a White House enabled by Republicans in Congress and a media structure that supports them that has not just differed in terms of policy but has gone at the very foundations of who we are and who we should be,” Obama continued.

“That suggests facts don’t matter, science doesn’t matter. That suggests that a deadly disease is fake news. That sees the Justice Department as simply an extension and arm of the personal concerns of the president,” he said.

The fundraiser is the first joint campaign event between Biden and Obama and is expected to raise more than $4 million for Biden’s White House bid, officials said.

“I am here to say the help is on the way if we do the work because there’s nobody I trust more to be able to heal this country and get back on track than my dear friend Joe Biden.”

Described as a “grassroots” virtual fundraiser, more than 120,000 people made small dollar donations averaging $25.

A fundraiser earlier this month with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a former presidential hopeful who is in the running to be Biden’s veep, raised $6 million.

Obama, 58, was silent during the competitive Democratic primary, counseling candidates behind closed doors, and only endorsed his former veep in April.

The former president has largely avoided wading into politics since leaving office in 2017 but in recent weeks has been vocal about civil rights protests across the country after the death of George Floyd.

He is expected to appear frequently on the campaign stump for Biden, 77, as the election heats up in the fall, lending his star power to Biden’s once-anemic campaign.

Obama spokeswoman Katie Hill said the former president would throw his full weight behind Biden and argue why he was the best person to lead the country during two national crises.

The presumptive Democratic nominee is polling ahead of Trump is several swing states and out-raised the president by $7 million for the first time in May, according to the campaigns’ numbers.

Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee raised $74 million last month while the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised $81 million.

However, the president still sits on a massive $200 million war chest.