In the aftermath of the disastrous performance by US President Joe Biden, information has now emerged that suggests Biden’s closest aides have carefully limited his interactions with both internal and external parties since the start of his presidency.
According to a report from Axios, as a result of this approach, many current and former White House aides, who didn’t have access to Biden, were taken aback by the 81-year-old president’s frailty during Thursday night’s debate.
Many staffers worry that Biden isn’t fit to serve another term
Many of them are reportedly questioning his ability to serve a second term. Chandler West, the White House’s deputy director of photography from January 2021 to May 2022, expressed these concerns openly on social media.
“It’s time for Joe to go,” West wrote in an Instagram story after the debate. He elaborated, “I know many of these people and how the White House operates. They will say he has a ‘cold’ or just experienced a ‘bad night,’ but for weeks and months, in private, they have all said what we saw last night — Joe is not as strong as he was just a couple of years ago.”
In a conversation with a journalist, West reportedly added that he made the post because “the debate was not the first bad day, and it’s not gonna be the last.”
Here is what you need to know
So, who are the key people, who decided since the beginning of the presidency, to keep Biden isolated? According to the report, it is Jill Biden, along with her top aide, Anthony Bernal, and deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini. Apparently, even the White House residence staff, responsible for serving the first family in their living quarters, has been kept at a distance.
A former residence official noted, “They often wouldn’t let us do anything for them.”
It is important to highlight the fact that the separation between the Biden family and the residence staff is a rather unusual practice compared to previous administrations. The former official reportedly added, “It’s not supposed to be (this way) and usually isn’t, even in the Trump White House.”
A White House official attempting to rationalize this practice said that the President isn’t used to “being waited on regularly or having butlers, so some staff are often allowed to go home early”.
The report also suggests that Bernal, Tomasini, and other close aides had unrestricted access to the residence area of the White House, which some residence staff found unusual. Typically, political staffers do not have such access.
As Biden continues his presidency, the extraordinary measures taken by his aides to isolate him since the beginging of the presidency, raise questions about his capacity to serve another term, especially following his debate performance.
Senior aides kept Biden isolated from his staff since 2021, says report world-news, us World News | Latest International Global World News | Todays Breaking News Headlines
