After Joe Biden’s horrific debate performance, current and former aides are saying the quiet part out loud and revealing what the president is like behind the scenes.
The White House and the campaign have blamed Biden’s low, sometimes hard-to-understand speaking voice on a “cold.” Others say it’s just how the president is now on a daily basis.
Chandler West, the former White House deputy director of photography, wrote in an Instagram story, “It’s time for Joe to go.”
“I know a lot of these people and how the White House works,” West added. “They’ll say he’s got a ‘cold’ or he’s just had a ‘bad night’, but for weeks and months they’ve all privately said what we saw last night – Joe isn’t as strong as he was a few months ago. years ago.’
Biden’s campaign tried to play down the problem, claiming the car crashes were just a “slow start.”
Current and former aides say their close associates have protected President Joe Biden from people inside and outside the White House since he took office — especially when it came to everything related to his health.
Former White House Deputy Director of Photography Chandler West (pictured) wrote in an Instagram Story: “I know a lot of these people and I know how the White House works. They’ll say he has a ‘cold’ or just had a ‘bad night,’ but for weeks and months, they’ve all been saying privately what we saw last night: Joe is not as strong as he was a few years ago.”
Vice President Kamala Harris dodged being pressed in a tense post-debate interview about what Biden is like every day.
“The person we saw tonight, the president we saw on that stage tonight, is he like that every day?” CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked Harris.
“The Joe Biden that I work with every day is someone who, as I said, has performed in a way that is focused on getting people, Republicans and Democrats, to the White House to compromise. That is rare these days because that just doesn’t happen. But Joe Biden can make it happen,” she replied, completely avoiding the point of the question.
West, who served in the White House from January 2021 to May 2022, told Axios: ‘The debate wasn’t the first bad day, and it won’t be the last.’
Reporters have complained for years about the president’s access, with critics saying they do everything they can to ensure he spends as little time with the press as possible.
There has been speculation that those closest to the president, particularly First Lady Jill Biden, have been protective of him since he took office — especially after his limitations were on full display during Thursday night’s debate.
A former White House official told Axios that Jill was “so protective of the president” and the first lady’s top aide, Anthony Bernal, “was just protective of her, and often they wouldn’t let us do anything for them.”
“The separation between the family and the residence staff was so great, so divided,” the former official added. “It shouldn’t be that way and usually isn’t, even in the Trump White House.”
Vice President Kamala Harrison dodged when CNN pressed her about what Biden’s day is like after his disastrous debate performance. Pictured: Harris on the campaign trail in New York on June 21, 2024
From his first few months in office, residence staff felt that Biden’s closest allies were trying to keep his health a secret.
For example, during a very heated Independence Day celebration on the South Lawn on July 4, 2021, Biden returned to the White House, where the door was abruptly closed behind him so that butlers and other residence staff could not assist the president.
Aides suggested Biden was overheated, but it raised suspicion among staff and the consensus that they were creating a barrier around health issues.
A poll released Sunday shows that 72 percent of voters do not think Biden has the cognitive capabilities for another term. This is an increase of seven percent from the same poll conducted earlier in June, before the debate.
Former White House physician Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) has repeatedly questioned Biden’s cognitive and physical health.
He suggested that the seven-day debate preparation at Camp David was a way to ingest the drug cocktail just before the confrontation with Trump.