A new report is shedding more light on one of Biden’s biggest liabilities as he heads into his coronation as the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nominee.
According to Axios, the president’s age and subsequent laziness have become a campaign issue for voters, and it’s something the White House is having a tough time covering up. That’s exacerbated by the fact that their attempts to hide Biden only highlight the issue further.
The White House rarely puts Biden in improvisational settings — or in front of hostile questions from reporters. So it’s tough for anyone outside his tight bubble to truly appraise the reality of Biden being the oldest president in U.S. history.
That last sentence is Axios, a liberal publication, trying to hedge on just how bad things are for the president. But contrary to the framing, Biden’s tight bubble is not a hindrance to truly appraising his condition. It’s actually very instructive. If a president has to be constantly protected from even the most basic situations, doesn’t that say everything about his condition?
Again, that’s the problem for the White House. The more they try to cover for Biden, the more they advertise that his mental and physical decline is real. For context, the report lays out just how rare it is to see Biden in the mornings, evenings, and on weekends.
Some White House officials say it’s difficult to schedule public or private events with the president in the morning, in the evening, or on weekends: The vast majority of Biden’s public events happen on weekdays, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
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By the numbers: A breakdown of Biden’s schedule so far in 2023 reveals how his staff tries to ensure he’s at his best:
• Only four public events before 10 a.m.
• Just a dozen public events after 6 p.m. — mostly dinners and receptions with foreign leaders or fundraisers.
• 12 full weekends with no public events.
There have only been 16 full weekends in 2023. Biden has disappeared completely for 12 of them. Further, there have been 118 days so far in 2023. Biden has been seen in public after 6:00 PM on just 12 of them.
That’s astonishing when you consider how socially active presidents normally are and are expected to be in order to do their jobs properly. There’s a very simple explanation for Biden’s extremely light and tight schedule, of course. He is likely sundowning, a condition that sees those of an advanced age grow angry, tired, and anxious after the sun goes down.
The White House has a strategy for countering the doubters, though. Namely, by treating Americans like they are stupid. Here were the responses to Axios’ piece when asked for comment.
In response to this reporting, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon sent a one-word reply: “False.”
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Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told Axios: “To quote a young, healthy, and capable AP reporter’s tweet about the president energetically mixing with service members in the middle of a long trip back to the U.S. from Asia: ‘I am so tired.'”
Where to even begin with that? For starters, simply saying “false” isn’t much of an argument when the breakdown of Biden’s schedule is true. The lack of any actual rebuttal is telling in and of itself.
And as for Andrews Bates’ anecdote, it’s the kind of misleading snark we’ve come to expect from the White House. When Biden travels, he has a full suite on Air Force One and only has to show his face in public for brief, heavily scripted moments.
By comparison, a reporter traveling with a president is working even when the president is resting, and the press accommodations on Air Force One look a lot like a seat you’d find in economy on any airline. The idea that Biden popping up for minutes at a time while on foreign trips is some kind of huge physical burden is laughable.
Biden is really old, and voters are noticing. The White House can’t obfuscate its way out of that reality. As the 2024 presidential race heats up, the president’s deficiencies will only become more acute. He’s not going to be able to campaign in any real sense. With that said, it will be up to Republicans to keep the spotlight on Biden. If that doesn’t happen, the basement strategy may well succeed again.