how Biden’s aides tried to cover up his demise

how Biden’s aides tried to cover up his demise

White House aides restricted President Biden’s access to information, controlled his reading materials and limited meetings with senior officials throughout his presidency, despite maintaining until five months ago that he would seek re-election.

Biden, 82, the oldest president, has been examined for his age and fitness for office. “In the conversations I have, they don’t even mention the president. It’s kind of sad,” one Democratic official said. “It feels like Trump is already president.”

Aides are understood to have worked to protect him from scenarios that could heighten concerns about his ability to carry out the role effectively.

Staff members are preparing for an interview with Robert Hur, the special counsel investigating classified documents that Biden kept after his vice presidency According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, he reportedly found that he had difficulty remembering the talking points and briefings they provided. Hur described Biden as “an older man with a poor memory.”

The newspaper also claimed that aides often had to instruct Biden on how to leave the stage after speeches and were instructed to exclude negative stories from his daily media briefings.

President Biden at a podium, with a photo of a walkway to the podium.

Instructions showed the president how to get on stage at major events

Even in the run-up to the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, senior officials – including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and prominent Democrats in Congress – are said to have had difficulty arranging meetings with him.

In one case in spring 2021, a national security briefing was said to have been postponed after an aide declared that the president was “having a bad day.” The chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Kabul later that year culminated in the deaths of 13 American soldiers in a suicide bombing at the city’s airport. The operation drew widespread criticism, including within Biden’s party.

Biden’s public appearances, including a widely criticized debate with Trump, further fueled concerns about his fitness to serve. Despite preparations for the debate, Biden, who previously spent nearly a week at Camp David, cited fatigue from foreign travel as a factor in his performance.

Check out five key moments from the Trump-Biden debate

Two weeks later, he withdrew from the race, leaving the Democratic nomination to his running mate, Kamala Harris.

Since Harris lost to Trump in the presidential election last month, Biden has been less visible in public. Unlike some of his predecessors, he has not yet scheduled a post-election press conference.

Some Democrats have criticized Biden’s decision to stay in the presidential race so long, arguing that it denied the party a competitive primary that could have produced a better candidate than Harris. Biden has reportedly expressed frustration with senior Democratic leaders, including Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, who allegedly moved against him after his debate appearance.

The White House has insisted that Biden and his administration should remain focused on their tasks in the final weeks of his presidency. Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, told the Journal that Biden “has achieved the most successful record of any modern commander in chief and has rebuilt the middle class because of his attention to policy details that affect millions of lives.”

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