White House insiders Tuesday warned a tight cabal of senior officials shield Americans from President Joe Biden's declining state as they wield increasing control over national politics — a characterization a White House spokesperson characterized as flatly false.
Those insiders — few of whom put their names to their words — painted a contrasting portrait of the Democratic nominee who they describe as both under the passive sway of controlling advisers and simultaneously terrifying, Politico reported Tuesday.
"People are scared s---less of him," one senior administration told Politico. "He is not a pleasant person to be around when he’s being briefed."
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Politico it is common for White House officials to complain of lack of access to the president and denied his reliance on close advisers stood as evidence of mental decline.
“In every administration, there are individuals who would prefer to spend more time with the president and senior officials,” Bates said in a reported statement. “President Biden fights hard for families every day, working with a wide range of team members at what he is proud is the most diverse White House ever.”
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The Politico report comes less than a week after Biden's "bad" debate against former President Donald Trump, a convicted felon found guilty of paying hush money payments to an adult film star to bury unflattering coverage ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump also stands accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election on the state and federal level, but the future of those cases remains uncertain after the Supreme Court ruled Monday he enjoyed partial immunity in the lead up to the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
On Tuesday, Politico reported mounting concerns about Biden's ability to defeat the presumptive Republican nominee and cast much blame on the "cabal" Democratic donor John Morgan argued are not to be trusted.
“The whole planning, preparation was political malpractice,” Morgan said of the debate.
Another Democratic strategist in a battleground state told Politico the number of Biden's trusted advisers has shrunk — and argued that's a problem.
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“The number of people who have access to the president has gotten smaller and smaller and smaller," the strategist said. " They’ve been digging deeper into the bunker for months now.”
But aides who have worked for Biden argue the president's isolation also has roots in a political elitism that never counted Biden as an insider, Politico reports.
"They tend to view Biden’s debate meltdown and the ensuing party-wide freak-out about his candidacy as just another moment of being counted out," Politico reports. "Their recent experience — Biden’s 2020 win and the Democrats’ history-defying midterm success in 2022 — has many convinced that he’ll survive this, too."
Patrick Gaspard, the CEO of the Democrat-aligned Center for American Progress, said in an interview that the incumbent president has not torpedoed his chances of reclaiming the White House in 2025.
“Campaigns are really long slogs,” Gaspard told Politico. He also suggested it was time for Biden to up "start opening up a bit and pulling other folks in."
Politico notes Biden has done fewer sit-down interviews than recent predecessors — but don't detail with which presidents they are making a comparison.
Bates told Politico Biden has done 43 interviews this year, and Wes Moore, the Democratic governor of Maryland, urged the White House to continue to make Biden available.
“The answer is going to be to continue to have them out there," Moore told Politico. "We continue that, the president’s going to win.”
