President Joe Biden has bragged to his staff behind closed doors when he has a moment he thinks his former boss, former President Barack Obama, might be envious of.

Biden, whose aides reportedly felt that Obama did not value Biden’s insight on foreign policy and Congress when he was vice president, would tout that “Obama would be jealous” of certain legislation he has passed in his first term in office, according to Axios. 

The relationship between the two presidents has always appeared friendly and respectful on the surface, with Obama often praising Biden publicly. But Biden’s comment hints at an underlying rivalry between the pair, who share some of the same staff. 

“Joe and the administration are essentially finishing the job,” Obama told the New York Times in 2021. “Ninety percent of the folks who were there in my administration, they are continuing and building on the policies we talked about.”

The recently released transcript of Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur over the president’s handling of classified documents revealed the relationship was especially rocky in the 2016 elections, in which Obama supported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton instead of Biden.

“A lot of people … were encouraging me to run in this period, except the president,” Biden told Hur. “He just thought that [Clinton] had a better shot of winning the presidency than I did.”

Biden later told his staff he believed he would have beaten Donald Trump in 2016.

Biden’s perceived rivalry with the former president has even affected how he governs on key matters such as foreign policy, defense, and legislative victories such as the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which included funding in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

One of Biden’s biggest shifts from Obama was his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Biden had encouraged Obama to withdraw troops from the Middle Eastern country as early as 2009, but the former president refused. Biden withdrew the troops just a few months into his tenure in the Oval Office, and it resulted in the deaths of 13 servicemembers. 

White House spokesman Andrew Bates rejected claims of a feud between the pair, claiming the duo speak frequently.

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“President Biden does not make such comments in private. As President Biden has said, President Obama is family to him,” Bates told Axios. “[He] talks to both former President Obama and [former] President [Bill] Clinton often.”

Obama is expected to stump for Biden on the campaign trail ahead of the 2024 elections. Biden secured the delegates for the Democratic nomination for president last week.