President Barack Obama and those closest to him are "doing everything they can" to encourage Vice President Joe Biden to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, former New York Times Magazine editor-in-chief Edward Klein tells Newsmax TV.
In a panel discussion Tuesday on "Newsmax Prime" with host J.D. Hayworth and Miranda Khan, the author of "Blood Feud: The Clintons vs. The Obamas," said the push is coming from the president, First Lady Michelle Obama and Obama's senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett.
"[They] are doing everything they can at this point to encourage Joe Biden to throw in his hat," he said.
Klein said he also believes Clinton is in "a kind of race against time."
"Which is going to come first, is she going to be able to sew up the nomination by just throwing more money, more organization at the primaries so that she is unbeatable – or will a criminal indictment come down from the Justice Department [over her personal email system while Secretary of State] before that fact?" Klein said.
"And they're very concerned about which is going to come first."
Political commentator Dick Morris said if a possible Biden candidacy doesn't signal any animosity between the Obama and Clinton camps, "there sure will be if Biden runs, because the inevitable dynamos of the race are going to cause it, even if nobody wants it."
"You can only have one candidate out there saying everything Obama's doing is right…. I'll just continue what Obama's doing," he said. "You can't have two candidates saying that because the other one won't get covered and Biden lives on campus. These are his programs as well as Obama's."
Morris added Hillary Clinton, in order to get media coverage, will have to distinguish herself, and that means criticizing the president's record — "at first gently," but eventually becoming "more and more acerbic."
"It really could endanger Hillary's pursuit of Obama's base," Morris predicted.
In the meantime, Morris predicts Clinton's polling will continue continue to trend downard.
"I believe that Hillary is in free fall," Morris said. "She's dropped from the high 60s to 37 percent in favorability and she's going to continue to drop and she's losing her grip on the base and the Clintons are wrong. Something may happen before she sews up the nomination ... which is the sound of Hillary crashing and hitting bottom.
"If Biden comes into the race, the opening head to head would probably be Hillary 38 [percent support], Biden 18, [Vermont Sen. Bernie] Sanders 15. And then a month later, it'll become close to a two-way tie. I don't think that Hillary can easily defeat Biden and Sanders. Biden would probably win that contest."
