President Joe Biden’s aides successfully covered up his health until he stepped into the spotlight for July’s debate, according to Wall Street Journal interviews with nearly 50 people, including many who had direct knowledge of the operation.
Many Democrats and their media allies still refuse to speak out about the president’s state.
White House aides, moreover, still appear to be engaged in covering up the scandal by denying key aspects of the Journal’s report, such as the degree to which Biden was insulated from everyone in the world except a few top senior aides and his family.
Biden has about a month left in his term.
Aides took the following actions:
- Adjusted the presidential schedule, starting at the beginning of his term, due to “Biden’s advanced age”
- Limited Biden’s schedule because he “became tired if meetings went long” causing him to “make mistakes”
- Told “visitors to keep meetings focused,” including meetings with senior Democrat lawmakers and some cabinet members
- Excluded negative stories about the president in his daily news clips, including negative polling about his 2024 campaign
- Implemented greater than normal “controls” over who Biden “spoke with,” what they “said to him”
- Limited “the sources of information he consumed”
- Gave Biden great assistance at public events, which was characterized as “hand holding” unlike “other recent presidents have had”
- Allowed Biden to start his day later in the morning, “since Biden has never been at his best first thing”
- Caused “[a]t least one cabinet member stopped requesting calls with the president, because it was clear that such requests wouldn’t be welcome”
- Dictated agency “decisions and expect cabinet agencies to carry them out”
- Fielded concerns from cabinet members, who were mostly not allowed to take their concerns directly to the president
- Tried to protect the president, who “couldn’t recall lines that his team had previously discussed with him” during meetings
- Prevented the press, donors, and stakeholders in Biden’s campaign from direct contact with the president
- Often repeated “basic instructions to him, such as where to enter or exit a stage”
- Looked for a “voice coach to improve the president’s fading warble”
The Journal reported the campaign fallout in July from Biden’s insulation:
But this summer, Democratic insiders became alarmed by the way Biden described his own polling, publicly characterizing the race as a tossup when polls released in the weeks after the disastrous June debate consistently showed Trump ahead. They worried he wasn’t getting an unvarnished look at his standing in the race.
Those fears intensified on July 11, when Biden’s top advisers met behind closed doors with Democratic senators, where the advisers laid out a road map for Biden’s victory. The message from the advisers was so disconnected from public polling—which showed Trump leading Biden nationally—that it left Democratic senators incredulous. It spurred Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) to speak to Biden directly, according to people familiar with the matter, hoping to pierce what the senators saw as a wall erected by Donilon to shield Biden from bad information. Donilon didn’t respond to requests for comment.
On July 13, Biden held an uncomfortable call with a group of Democratic lawmakers called the New Democrat Coalition, aimed at reassuring them about his ability to stay in the race. The president told participants that polling showed he was doing fine. He became angry when challenged, according to lawmakers on the call. At one point, Biden looked up and abruptly told the group he had to go to church. Some lawmakers on the call believed someone behind the camera was shutting it down.
Eight days later, Biden dropped out of the race.
Disaster: Joe Biden Stumbles Through Incoherent Closing Argument
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.