They say that politics makes for odd friendships. Normally, that means politicians on opposite sides of the fence uniting on a few surprising issues. Sometimes, though, nothing is more surprising than the friendship itself.
That’s perhaps the best way to describe the friendship between Sasha Obama and Maisy Biden, granddaughter of Joe Biden. Initially, it was the fact that Barack Obama and Joe Biden worked together that brought these relatives together. But long after the Obamas left the White House, Sasha and Maisy are still as tight as ever. In fact, they’re all grown up and showing the entire world they know how to party.
Don’t believe it? Keep reading to discover everything about how this friendship began and what these famous gals have been getting up to lately!
How the friendship started
How did Sasha Obama and Maisy Biden first become friends? As you might expect, it all started with the fact that Barack Obama was president and Joe Biden was vice president. Shortly into the beginning of Obama’s first term, 2009, these two girls met for the first time.
Because their fathers are so famous, everyone thinks that it was Obama and Biden who first introduced these girls. That’s not the case, however: it was actually the work of Michelle Obama and Jill Biden. They made sure that this epic friendship started in the coolest possible way: with an equally epic sleepover.
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One epic sleepover
The sleepover that Michelle Obama and Jill Biden put together for Sasha and Maisy was perfect from top to bottom. After Finnegan Biden (Maisy’s cousin) put in the initial sleepover request, the adults made sure it was a proper party by including Maisy’s other cousins. The girls spent the night eating popcorn, watching television, and enjoying each other’s company.
The night certainly made an impression on Maisy Biden, but it also made quite the impression on her famous grandfather. According to the Chicago Tribune, Biden recalled the sleepover and how Maisy and Sasha shared a pillow. “I had no doubts after that about why the hell I took this job, why I was running,” he said. “Sounds corny, but I mean it.”
Sports stars with a famous coach
While it was the sleepover that really cemented Sasha Obama and Maisy Biden’s friendship, they had another interesting shared experience to bring them closer together. They were on the same basketball team together, and at one point, they needed a temporary replacement coach. To everyone’s surprise, Barack Obama stepped up to help coach his daughter and her friends to what would eventually become a championship win.
As Glamour reports, the president did this because he felt that it was what any good parent would do, and his White House responsibilities shouldn’t necessarily get in the way of him more directly giving back to the community. However, he did end up quitting his job as coach in part because some people (especially parents of Sasha’s various opponents) thought having the leader of the free world as their coach gave Sasha and Maisy’s team an unfair advantage!
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A friendship that stood the test of time
As close as Sasha Obama and Maisy Biden were back in the day, we all know that friendships fade over time as people grow older and begin to drift apart. Because of that, many people thought that this unexpected friendship would eventually become just a thing of the past.
Those assumptions, however, were completely wrong. Not only did they attend a basketball game together in 2014 (American University Eagles and Princeton Tigers), but the two families also got together in 2019 to celebrate the girls’ graduation. It turned out to be an amazing celebration that proved that Joe Biden doesn’t hesitate to put his family ahead of workplace responsibilities.
Joe Biden puts his schedule on pause for this friendship
At the time of the girls’ 2019 graduation, Joe Biden (back to serving as a Senator) had a number of major responsibilities to attend to. The biggest one of them at that moment was attending the Iowa Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame dinner. However, Biden ended up blowing that event off altogether to help Sasha and Maisy celebrate their graduation along with his family and Barack Obama’s family.
Some critics felt that Biden made the wrong call by prioritizing the needs of his family over the needs of his political party. As The Hill reports, though, Biden has no regrets: “My granddaughter was graduating. It was my daughter’s birthday. I would skip the inauguration for that.”
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All grown up and partying the night away
Back in 2019, Sasha Obama and Maisy Biden partied alongside their parents and grandparents. Half a decade later, however, these girls are all grown up and know how to find the perfect parties on their own.
Most recently, this dynamic duo was photographed attending a Saturday Night Live afterparty at Zuma in New York City. It may have been a gathering of professional comedians, but as you can tell from the girls’ fierce fits, fashion is one thing they take just as seriously as their amazing friendship.