Watch Now: Obama Endorses Joe Biden For President

Former President Barack Obama officially endorsed Joe Biden for president Tuesday, making the announcement that he will support his former vice president through a video message shared to Biden's YouTube channel.

The endorsement by Obama, who remains one of the most popular and influential figures in the party, marks the former president's public reemergence in a contest in which he largely tried to stay out of the spotlight.

Watch Obama's endorsement in the video player above or on YouTube.

“Joe has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery," Obama said in the video, "and I know he’ll surround himself with good people — experts, scientists, military officials who actually know how to run the government and care about doing a good job running the government, and know how to work with our allies, and who will always put the American people’s interests above their own."

Obama and Biden are known to be close friends from their two terms in the White House, and Biden leaned heavily on his affiliation with the former president throughout the Democratic primary, according to the Associated Press, touting their relationship and framing his pitch as an extension of Obama’s presidency.

However, Obama had remained on the sidelines as the primary played out, though he offered advice to candidates behind the scenes, NBC News reported, adding that in recent weeks, he had several calls with Bernie Sanders to try and figure out the best path forward for Democrats.

Obama's support comes a day after Sanders endorsed Biden for president in a joint online appearance. Both backings are crucial developments for Biden, who must bridge the Democratic Party's ideological divide to unify voters against President Donald Trump in the fall.