President Joe Biden’s staff played a pivotal role in shielding him from the public eye by constructing walls around the aging Democratic leader, blocking out even key lawmakers and senior members of his own administration.
A stack of interviews from a new Wall Street Journal report included concerns from Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), a maverick former Democrat who spent long hours negotiating with the White House during Biden’s first few years in office.
Noting he had questions at the time about whether Biden had the stamina required to run the country, Manchin suggested presidential staffers had become avid gatekeepers, calling them a group of “eager beavers.”
“They were going, ‘I’ll take care of that,’ ” Manchin said of a group of staffers who included then-White House chief of staff Ron Klain.
The gatekeeping reportedly has gone so far as to limit top Cabinet officials’ access to Biden, even as the United States grapples with wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has seen his access to one-on-one, in-person briefings with Biden significantly decline in the past two years, per the report.
Even during the chaotic 2021 U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden’s staffers reportedly pushed top lawmakers, including the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, away from the commander in chief.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said that while he tried to hold a direct conversation with Biden regarding his concerns about the plans, he was never able to get on the phone with him before the disastrous withdrawal left 13 U.S. troops dead. Smith reportedly wanted the president and his team to measure their expectations, knowing himself how complicated a mission like this would be.
Smith had just one call with Biden during his time in the White House shortly after the Afghanistan affair, according to the congressman.
“The Biden White House was more insulated than most,” Smith told the outlet. “I spoke with Barack Obama on a number of occasions when he was president and I wasn’t even chairman” of the Armed Services committee.
The same “insulation” problem was perpetuated when it came to giving presidential pollsters access to Biden the candidate, per the report. All polling information was funneled through adviser Mike Donilon rather than given directly to Biden, as was the case in 2020. The lack of contact with the president fueled concerns that he was disconnected from voters, according to the outlet.
The “insulated” White House environment staffers reportedly worked to build comes as Biden, 82, has faced increasing scrutiny over his mental acuity, with doctors particularly questioning the president’s cognitive state following his presidential debate in June. Biden’s campaign exit the following month was largely driven by concerns about his mental state and capacity to lead the country for another four years.
Manchin said even during his frequent contact with the White House during the first half of the Biden administration, he felt like “maybe the president just lost that fight.”
“The ability to continue to stay on, just grind it, grind it, grind it,” the West Virginia senator said.
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While concerns that Biden’s staffers are trying to conceal his decline from top officials are on the rise, records show the number of meetings Biden has held with his Cabinet has sharply declined compared to previous administrations.
Biden has held nine full Cabinet meetings over the past four years. In contrast, former President Barack Obama held 19, and President-elect Donald Trump held 25 full Cabinet meetings during their first terms in office, according to former CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller.
