Although much has been made about the “bromance” between former US President Barack Obama and current US President Joe Biden, there were disagreements.
Including the proper way to say, “fuck you.”
According to a new book, The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House And The Struggle For America’s Future, by journalist Franklin Foer, the two politicians were so in sync that they even had an unspoken code.
For instance, if Obama wanted the answer to a provocative question during a cabinet meeting without being the one to ask it, he would simply lean back in his seat, which would give Biden the signal to ask it for him, Foer reports.
But they had their differences too. If Obama rolled his eyes at Biden over something, Biden would roll his own eyes back at the president, according to the book.
In addition, Foer reports that Biden once told a friend that Obama didn’t know how to say “fuck you” properly, with what the book describes as “the right elongation of vowels and the necessary hardness of his consonants.”
Biden reportedly explained to the friend that “it was how they must curse in the ivory tower.”
Biden served as Obama’s vice president for both of his terms, working closely with him to negotiate key legislation such as the Affordable Care Act. The two have remained close, and last year, when Obama visited the White House, he called Biden an “extraordinary friend and partner who was by my side for eight years.”
Obama’s relationship with Biden has affected the president’s relationship with Vice President Kamala Harris, according to one passage in “The Last Politician”:
“Biden wanted to treat Harris with the respect that he felt Barack Obama hadn’t accorded him. He made a point of referring to her as the vice president, as opposed to my vice president. He was a stickler for asking her opinion in meetings—and making sure that her office was kept in the loop.”