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Former President Joe Biden was protected by those closest to him who knew he was faltering as president, according to a report.
Citing sources, The New York Times reported that Biden’s aides saw that he was not the same as he was a few years before and that they worked to protect him as best they could.
“The people closest to President Biden were well aware that he had changed. He talked more slowly than he had just a few years before, needed to hoist himself out of his seat in the presidential limousine and walked with a halting gait,” the report began.
His longtime aide, Mike Donilon, reportedly told the president in 2022 that his “biggest issue is the perception of age.”
However, being stubborn and defensive, the president took that advice and ignored it when he announced in 2023 that he was again going to campaign for reelection before consulting his aides or his family, the Times reported.
When he was interviewed on January 5 by USA Today, the president acknowledged that he did not know if he would have made it through another term in the White House.
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“Who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?” he said then.
After dozens of interviews, The Times reported that aides “recognized his physical frailty to a greater degree than they have publicly acknowledged. Then they cooperated, according to interviews with more than two dozen aides, allies, lawmakers and donors, to manage his decline.
“They rearranged meetings to make sure Mr. Biden was in a better mood — a strategy one person close to him described as how aides should handle any president. At times, they delayed sharing information with him, including negative polling data, as they debated the best way to frame it. They surrounded him with aides when he walked from the White House to the waiting presidential helicopter on the South Lawn so that news cameras could not capture his awkward bearing,” the report said.
“They had Mr. Biden use a teleprompter for even small fund-raisers in private homes, alarming donors, who were asked to provide questions beforehand. They came up with replacing the grand steps that presidents use to board Air Force One with a shorter set that led directly into the belly of the plane. They chastised White House correspondents for coverage of the president’s age. They hand-delivered memos to Mr. Biden describing social media posts the campaign staff had persuaded allies to write that pushed back on negative articles and polls,” it added.
The Times said that there were “six key people” who protected the president from scrutiny.
First lady Jill Biden, his oldest son Hunter Biden, Donilon, presidential counselor Steve Ricchetti, Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, and the first lady’s most senior aide, Anthony Bernal.
Biden’s term in office has been marked with controversy and personal failures, but he nevertheless appeared to suffer one final humiliation before turning the White House over to President-elect Donald Trump.
During Biden’s final farewell address to the country last week, cameras caught him sitting on a pillow while seated at the Resolute Desk, as reported by the New York Post.
“Photos taken from just outside the Oval Office show the 82-year-old commander-in-chief with the small cushion wedged between the presidential rump and the seat of the seemingly firm leather chair,” the outlet reported.
The oldest-serving U.S. president has frequently struggled with his balance, stamina, and mental clarity—whether it’s tripping on the stairs of Air Force One or making missteps in speeches, often accompanied by gaffes and coughing.
