Obama slams 'despicable' attack ad against Biden

Former US President Barack Obama has slammed a "despicable" racially charged attack ad against his Vice President and Democratic presidential contender, Joe Biden, it was reported.

The clip, entitled "South Carolina, Joe Biden Can't Be Trusted", was broadcast on TV stations in the southern state before Tuesday night's Democratic debate in Charleston, formerly the BBC said in a report on Thursday.

A female narrator introduces audio from former Obama's 1995 memoir, "Dreams from My Father", in which he reads a quotation from a Chicago barber who had expressed cynicism about Democratic politics.

Obama is heard saying: "Plantation politics. Black people in the worst jobs, the worst housing. Police brutality rampant. But when the so-called black committeemen came around election time, we'd all line up and vote the straight Democratic ticket. Sell our souls for a Christmas turkey."

But the hairdresser cited by the former President was talking about the Illinois city's first black mayor and not Biden.

In response, Obama's lawyers said that they will file a cease-and-desist letter to immediately stop televisions stations in South Carolina running the clip which was put out by the Committee to Defend the President, a political action committee devoted to re-electing Donald Trump for a second term.

"This despicable ad is straight out of the Republican disinformation playbook," the BBC quoted Katie Hill, Obama's communications director, as saying on Thursday.

"And it's clearly designed to suppress turnout among minority voters in South Carolina by taking President Obama's voice out of context and twisting his words to mislead viewers.

"In the interest of truth in advertising, we are calling on TV stations to take this ad down and stop playing into the hands of bad actors who seek to sow division and confusion among the electorate."

Hill reiterated that Obama "has several friends in this race, including, of course, his own esteemed vice-president", but "has no plans to endorse in the primary".