The then vice-president suggested Obama wait before ordering the mission that killed the al-Qaida leader in 2011, new memoir says
Joe Biden advised Barack Obama to wait to order the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the former president writes in his new memoir.
“Joe weighed in against the raid,” Obama writes in A Promised Land, about discussion of the Navy Seals mission, which he ordered to go ahead as intended in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on the night of 1-2 May 2011.
Obama’s book will be published on Tuesday. Guardian US has seen a copy.
Obama writes that his vice-president, who will follow him to the White House in January, immediately supported his decision to proceed with the Bin Laden raid.
Whether Biden advised against the raid has been a contentious issue in US politics.
During this year’s election, Republican attack ads claimed Biden opposed taking Bin Laden out altogether.
Biden has said that during group discussion of whether to order the raid, he advised Obama to take more time, saying: “Don’t go.”
He has also said he subsequently told Obama to “follow your instincts”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/12/barack-obama-memoir-joe-biden-bin-laden-raid
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