Chaos swirling since Biden’s debate flub is causing cracks in a White House known for discipline

WASHINGTON — Internal drama. Leaks. Doubts. The pressure and chaos that have built since Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance are tearing at a White House that has been defined by discipline and loyalty.

For more than three years, the Biden administration has been a low-key, sedate operation, defined more by an emphasis on policymaking and an avoidance of palace intrigue. Aides have generally kept criticism of their bosses or their jobs out of public view. Not lately.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reflected Tuesday on the extraordinary moment for the president and his team, as questions about the 81-year-old’s age and mental capacity threaten to derail his re-election hopes. “It’s been an unprecedented time,” she said of the president’s oversight. “We’re facing a new moment that has never existed before.”

Bidens shaky debate performance June 27 has led to an unusually public blame game, leaks of private phone calls between the president and Democrats and questions about his son The presence of Hunter Biden in the White House. It has prompted current White House officials to anonymously express concerns about Biden’s ability to handle the job and even led to the resignation of a radio journalist after details emerged that the Biden campaign had given her and another reporter interview questions.

Not to mention all the drama taking place on Capitol Hillwhere a handful of Democrats in the House of Representatives have publicly called for Biden’s resignation and others are wringing their hands behind closed doors over whether to speak out publicly against the president as party leaders try to corral their members.

Biden has is convinced that he will not abandon the raceand the criticism may have died down somewhat, but it’s not yet clear whether the drama in the White House is a temporary setback or will continue as the country heads toward the 2024 elections.

The closed atmosphere in the White House under Biden has been intentional: He wanted his administration to be seen as a return to normal government activities after the leaky Trump White Housewith half-baked policy documents landing on the front pages and details of closed meetings sometimes becoming public while they were still in progress.

It was also a reflection of the deep loyalty of Biden’s inner circle, with many of his top advisers having worked with the president for decades.

Biden’s performance at the debate drew a surprising amount of public criticism from some of his biggest fans, including former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, who appeared on a cable television panel immediately following the confrontation.

“It was a really disappointing debate performance from Joe Biden. I don’t think there’s any other way to say it. His biggest problem was proving to the American people that he had the energy, the stamina — and he didn’t,” she said on CNN.

After Biden’s ABC interview, which was partly intended to show that he could talk out of his ass, former White House communications officer Michael LaRosa issued a scathing public critique: “Just when you thought the President’s communications teams had lost all credibility…. they race to the bottom and are determined to continue to humiliate the President and the First Family with misguided and POOR media relations that undermine his position day after day.”

Privately, aides and allies were quietly shocked by Biden’s debate performance, wondering whether the campaign could be salvaged, especially as negative reviews mounted.

Bee Camp David the weekend after the debateBiden’s family — particularly Hunter Biden and first lady Jill Biden — have encouraged the president to stay in the race and have questioned whether his staff had adequately prepared him. (Biden, for his part, has said adamantly that the disastrous debates were “nobody’s fault but mine.”)

Not long after that, the presence of Hunter Biden — awaiting sentencing on three felony gun charges — in the White House was troubling to some, who worried about his influence over his father, according to two Democrats close to the White House who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

And there has been doubt about the long-term strategy of limiting Biden’s public interactions, particularly with journalists, under a mandate led by senior aides. Biden has given fewer interviews than his modern predecessors and held fewer news conferences than any president since Ronald Reagan.

White House officials have recently expressed concerns about the president and his storytelling skills spread across the national media. An official who sounded the alarm to the New York Times sounded a bit like “Anonymous,” the Trump employeewho sounded the alarm about Trump’s presidency in an op-ed in the New York Times and later went public with his grievances.

“This is not like the previous government, where we try to find out who is talking or leaking, that is not something we do here,” Jean-Pierre said when asked about the official’s comments. “Everyone has their own opinion.”

She said she had never heard anyone express such criticism as in publications.

There have also been public missteps. Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden had not been seen by his doctor since his medical exam, but the president later told campaign staff in a private conversation that he had been seen by his doctor after feeling ill following two grueling foreign trips in a row.

White House officials refused for days to explain a neurologist’s repeated visits to the White House, fueling speculation that Biden was being treated there.

On Sunday there is a radio presenter left job after news that she and another interviewer asked Biden questions they had received from the campaign.

Andrea Lawful-Sanders, host of “The Source” on WURD in Philadelphia, later appeared on CNN and said she was given a list of eight questions, four of which she approved.

WURD said Sunday that the interview was arranged and negotiated independently by Lawful-Sanders, “without the knowledge, consultation or cooperation of WURD management.” She resigned.

The interviews were intended as part of an effort to restore confidence in Biden’s ability to not only govern but also campaign successfully over the next four years. But the revelations only reinforced criticism that he couldn’t handle impromptu questioning.

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.