LET THE LEAKS COMMENCE! How Biden’s inner circle worked to keep signs of aging under wraps.
Senior White House advisers for more than a year have aggressively stage-managed President Biden’s schedule, movements and personal interactions, as they sought to minimize signs of how age has taken a toll on the oldest president in U.S. history.
The White House has limited Biden’s daily itinerary and shielded him from impromptu exchanges. Advisers have restricted news conferences and media appearances, twice declining Super Bowl halftime interviews — an easy way to reach millions of voters — and sought to make sure meetings with donors stuck to scripted pleasantries.
Senior aides dismissed travel suggestions over worries the president didn’t have the stamina for them, including an idea for Biden to make weekly cross-country trips in 2022 to tout the benefits of his infrastructure law.
All of this unfolded as Biden’s slips became increasingly obvious, and his top advisers were assuring everyone the president was fine.
When the 81-year-old president took the stage at last month’s debate, his abysmal performance in the 90-minute event stunned members of his party, including some White House staffers who rarely spend one-on-one time with Biden.Now, many donors and lawmakers say they feel misled by what they say is an effort to tamp down concerns, raised well before the debate, about whether Biden is fit for a second term. Some high-ranking Democrats said they worry that few in the party have the courage to tell Biden face-to-face that he needs to step aside.
But when you begin to lose the palace guard late night hosts, the writing is on the wall: Colbert: Biden a ‘Great President’ Without a Brain. Far-left host shreds ‘ancient’ leader, shoves him toward the exit. “‘Biden debated as well as Abe Lincoln … if you dug him up right now,’ he said before shredding the White House spin on Biden’s terrible, awful debate performance as being due to a cold. He had the kind of cold “where your voice gets hoarse and your brain explodes.’ ‘I guess you could say he’s … Sleepy Joe,’ he added, referencing Trump’s nickname for Biden with a comical wince.”