Joe Biden’s self-inflicted humiliation during the presidential debate stems from a variety of factors, but a key one is an increasingly controlling and isolating leader as his term progresses, a report said on Tuesday.
Politico has a wide range of analysis The communications team noted that Trump, who is in his 80s, has surrounded himself with a “small and increasingly protective circle of advisers”, shielding him from criticism and exploiting his desire to avoid scrutiny.
This effort to manage public perception of the oldest president in history, as evidenced by his dismal performance in the debates, has “tightly controlled his political activity” to Biden’s detriment.
This makes his own team accomplices in his downfall rather than political advisers.
What was that? After a week of rest and preparation, Biden coughs, stumbles and rambles his way through debate
The report also cited examples of Biden’s failure to engage with the broader members of his team.
In meetings with aides putting together a formal report to send to Biden, some officials have gone to great lengths to cherry-pick the information they present to avoid provoking a negative reaction.
“It’s like, ‘Don’t put that in, he’ll get mad’ or ‘Put that in, he loves it,'” one senior administration official said. “It’s a Rorschach test, it’s not a briefing, because he’s not a pleasant person to be around when he’s being briefed. It’s very difficult and people are extremely afraid of him.”
“This would be a catastrophic event, as Trump would be increasingly isolated from their control efforts, receiving no advice from anyone other than a few senior advisers,” the official said.
The report specifically names veteran members of the Biden campaign – senior adviser Anita Dunn, one of the earlier debate advocates, and former chief of staff Ron Klain, who oversaw the debate preparation week at Camp David – as having undermined the debate’s performance through their daily interactions with the 81-year-old Biden.
“The planning and preparation was all political malice,” Democratic major donor John Morgan said in an interview with the outlet, blaming a “conspiracy” by the president’s top aides, including Klain, Dunn and her husband, Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal lawyer.
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“I think he has a misplaced trust in those three guys and I believe that’s been the case from the beginning.”
Politico’s report came within hours of another public appearance by Biden, which had similar results to the presidential debate.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden spoke from the White House on Monday about the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, but was stumbled and gaffed.
I can’t feel safe… pic.twitter.com/ZNGRML9UkK
—Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 2, 2024
During his speech, Biden quoted a Supreme Court justice and then said “end quote” instead of pausing to indicate he was done with the quote.
Biden then declined to take questions from reporters before leaving the podium.
