Democrats accuse Joe Biden of ‘quiet quitting’ as he slowly vanishes from the public despite global crises
Democrats are accusing 82-year-old President Joe Biden of “quietly quitting” — a Gen-Z trend of gradually stepping away from his job rather than resigning.
Biden has just one month and two days left in office and has scaled back his number of public appearances.
He has also taken fewer questions from the press and stopped criticizing his current successor, newly elected President Donald Trump, whom he warned during the campaign cycle as a “threat to democracy.”
“It’s just strange that he spent so long talking about Donald Trump as an existential threat to democracy,” said Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor, who made the “silent stop” joke on Tuesday’s episode of the podcast.
“Yes, that sounds like what he does,” confirmed Vietor, a former Obama aide.
Vietor and the other hosts of Pod Save America were discussing a recent Politico article which explored why Biden had all but disappeared from public view.
“There is no leadership coming from the White House,” a Democrat close to senior lawmakers complained to the publication. ‘There is a total vacuum.’
Another source added: “In conversations I have, the president is not even mentioned. It feels like Trump is already president.”
President Joe Biden has been accused of a “silent shutdown” for cutting back on the number of public appearances and barely speaking to the press. On Wednesday he attended mass in Delaware to mark the anniversary of the deaths of his wife Neilia and daughter Naomi
While Trump has largely retreated to Mar-a-Lago during the transition, he spent more than an hour Monday answering questions from the press from the Florida property’s ornate living room.
And while he hasn’t had Cabinet nominees walk through the lobby of Trump Tower or pose for photos in front of his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort, as he did during this period eight years ago, he has made some high-profile public performances, including Saturday’s Army. Navy game and a recent trip to Paris to admire the renovated Notre Dame Cathedral and meet world leaders.
Biden, on the other hand, has yet to schedule a post-election press conference — with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre not committing the president to the traditional back-and-forth.
During his two recent foreign trips — to Peru for APEC and to Brazil for the G20 and then a separate trip to Angola — Biden said a total of seven words to the press, Politico counted.
His lack of involvement caused top stories from South America to include a viral video that falsely suggested he was lost in the Amazon rainforest and reported on how he missed a G20 group photo while chatting in the palm trees with the Canadian Prime Minister and Italian Prime Minister. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni instead.
On Wednesday, Biden was confined to his home in Wilmington, where he made a midweek trip to Delaware to attend church services marking the anniversary of the tragic car accidents of his first wife Neilia and daughter Naomi in 1972.
Sources told Politico Biden’s reluctance is rooted in two factors: Biden’s own admission that few want to hear from him, and his own lingering personal belief that he doesn’t owe much anymore to a party that has unceremoniously cast him aside.
During two recent trips abroad, Biden said just seven words to reporters. In that vacuum, one story that went viral was the false story that the 82-year-old was lost in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.
Despite being the nation’s oldest president and polls showing for months that Americans had major concerns about old age, Biden announced a re-election bid on April 25, 2023, after Trump announced his own bid historically early.
Trump entered the 2024 race on November 14, 2022 – one week after the midterm elections were completed.
Biden believed that since he had defeated Trump once, he could do so again.
Those dreams were shattered after his disastrous June debate performance in Atlanta, with Biden quitting on July 21 after Democratic heavyweights, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, told him it was over.
In the weeks leading up to the election, his low poll numbers made him a liability for Vice President Kamala Harris, while campaign officials she inherited from Biden kept the president at arm’s length.
But now, with weeks to go, Democrats again want Biden to do something.
“There are all these things you could do that would be really historic and important,” Vietor said. “And if you’re not bothered by politics, why not watch the tape?”