During a recent call with House Democratic members, President Biden was given a personal note that said, “Stay positive,” which he read aloud.
As the 81-year-old president tried to persuade members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Saturday that he was capable of defeating former President Donald Trump on Election Day and was eligible to serve in the presidency, staff members handed him notecards with hints. The New York Times report.
“Stay positive. You’re sounding defensive,” Biden said on the call, appearing to read verbatim from a short letter from his staff.
One lawmaker told The New York Times that the moment showed how “staged” the call was between the president and lawmakers concerned about his reelection chances.
Biden has long been known to rely on notecards at news conferences, summits and private fundraisers to dictate where to sit, what to do and who will be in attendance.
Still, he interpreted the moment as the president “poking fun at his aides” rather than accidentally reading a private memo.
The president has a history of blurting out instructions meant only for himself, including when he read “pause” from a teleprompter during a campaign speech in April.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the CPC, said the call with Biden was “productive and interesting.”
“We spoke to the President openly about our concerns and asked him tough questions about the way forward, and we appreciate his thoughtful responses and his willingness to engage with lawmakers,” she wrote to X.
Biden’s call with the CPC came on the same day that a “tense” Zoom call with moderate Democrats was reported to have been “even worse than the debate,” undermining the trust of participants in the video chat, people who attended the call said.
“He was incoherent, he started to answer but couldn’t think straight and just said, ‘I don’t care’. He never really finished his answer. “All respect for him has disappeared,” said one person on the call. I told Puck..
“The president was incoherent, ignored concerns and was neither capable nor prepared to lay out a campaign strategy,” added the second person, a member of Congress.
Biden has faced growing calls from Democrats to end his reelection campaign after his disastrous June 27 debate with Donald Trump, with multiple polls showing the incumbent trailing the 78-year-old former president.
