WASHINGTON — President Biden griped to former President Barack Obama that “she” is “not as strong as me” — with Obama agreeing “that’s true” — in a stunning off-mic conversation deciphered for The Post by a professional lip reader.
The apparent candid assessment of Vice President Kamala Harris’ standing going into the Nov. 5 election occurred Wednesday afternoon as America’s two most recent Democratic presidents conversed at Ethel Kennedy’s memorial service in Washington.
“She’s not as strong as me,” said Biden, 81, according to the translation, which was produced by analyzing the on-video lip movements during the discussion.
“I know … that’s true,” the popular former president agreed, adding, “We have time.”
“Yeah, we’ll get it in time,” said Biden, who was forced by fellow Democrats to relinquish the party’s nomination in favor of Harris on July 21 in a mutiny that Obama was believed to support.
Moments earlier, Obama said, “it’s important that we have some time together” in a possible reference to campaigning alongside Harris.
The dialogue was translated for The Post by Jeremy Freeman, a London-based forensic lip reader who was born deaf and for 16 years has served as a University College London-certified expert witness for litigants, the police and journalists.
Although Harris’ name was not included in Freeman’s transcription, it’s unclear to whom else the conversation could have pertained.
Freeman described the conservation as “very supportive” and said he detected “no tension” between Obama and Biden, as had been speculated in viral commentary due to Obama shaking his head at one point.
Democratic sources were divided when asked about the translation — with some saying they believe it was an honest take on the state of the 2024 race and others expressing such strong disbelief that they questioned the accuracy of the script.
“From the outset, there has been widespread concern that Harris was not a strong alternative to Biden, who clearly was a sinking ship. So much so [that] multiple House members floated the idea of an open convention or removing Harris from the ticket along with Biden,” said one Democratic source.
“Democrats essentially robbed Peter to pay Paul and are now stuck with a less likable sinking ship.”
Biden spokesman Andrew Bates scoffed: “A ‘lip reading expert’? Did your usual right-wing soothsayer have their out-of-office up? Only President Biden and President Obama know what they discussed, but this certainly wasn’t it.”
A source close to Obama didn’t deny the translation but said, “Only President Obama and President Biden know what they discussed yesterday. Any assertion otherwise is ridiculous.”
Two former Biden White House officials who are working to support Harris’ candidacy, meanwhile, told The Post that they were stunned by the transcript and doubted that it could be accurate — with one urging “a new lip reader” and the other saying it’s “not even like [Biden] to say that.”
Harris, 59, surged in polling shortly after replacing Biden as the Democratic candidate against former President Donald Trump, but she has since slipped in critical swing-state polling.
The RealClearPolitics average of recent polls shows Harris trailing Trump, 78, in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The Republican has outperformed polls in each of the past two presidential elections.
Biden initially refused to step aside and argued that he had earned the nomination with more than 14 million votes and only token opposition in the state nominating contests earlier in the year.
He ultimately decided to drop out and endorse Harris amid mounting pressure from Democrats questioning his mental acuity after he struggled to articulate his positions in a June 27 debate with Trump.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) helped lead that mutiny, pointing to bleak polling showing Biden could doom down-ballot Democrats — while a friend of Obama’s, actor George Clooney, wrote a scathing New York Times op-ed detailing his concerns about Biden’s cognitive fitness.
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Pelosi, 84, also attended the Kennedy matriarch’s marathon three-hour memorial service near the White House.
She and Biden have not spoken since the former speaker helped force the president into retirement, and Biden at one point seemed to wince during her remarks as she hailed the incumbent, Obama and former President Bill Clinton, who also was in attendance.
