Fallout from Biden debate creates cracks in White House known for discipline

WASHINGTON (AP) — Internal drama. Leaks. Doubts. The pressure and chaos that have erupted since Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance have left cracks in a White House that until now has been marked by discipline and loyalty.

For more than three years, the Biden administration has been a rather reserved and demure one, characterized by a willingness to emphasize policy and avoid palace intrigue. Advisers typically keep any criticism of their boss or their position out of the public eye. But that has changed lately.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre spoke Tuesday of this extraordinary moment for the president and his team, as questions about the 81-year-old president’s age and mental capacity threaten to torpedo his reelection dreams. “This has been an unprecedented time,” she said of the president’s scrutiny. “We’re facing a new moment that has really never existed before.”

Biden unstable performance in June 27 debate led to an unusual public blame game, with leaks of Private phone calls between the president and Democrats and questions about his son Hunter Biden’s presence at the White House. It prompted current White House officials to anonymously express concerns about Biden’s ability to do his job and even led to the departure of a radio reporter after details emerged that the Biden campaign had provided her and another reporter with interview questions.

Not to mention all the drama takes place on Capitol Hillwhere a handful of House Democrats have publicly called on Biden to step down and others are squabbling behind closed doors over whether to speak out publicly against the president, while party leaders try to bring their members into line.

Biden has was adamant that he would not quit the raceAnd the chorus of criticism may be fading, but it’s not yet clear whether the White House drama was a momentary blip or will continue as the nation heads into the 2024 elections.

Andrew Bates, principal deputy press secretary, said Biden had “restored compassion, honesty and competence to the Oval Office” and built the most diverse administration in history.

“President Biden fought for the best record of any modern administration and he delivered the best record of any, and there wasn’t a week when Washington didn’t doubt him and his team,” Bates said. “The staff is deeply proud of him and each other and knows that the key is to focus on the job and the American people, not the noise.”

The buttoned-up mood in the White House under Biden has been intentional — he wanted his administration to be seen as a return to normal government operations after the Trump’s White House Leakswhen half-baked policies ended up making headlines and details of private meetings appeared in public, sometimes while they were still underway.

It also reflected the deep loyalty of Biden’s inner circle, where many top advisers have worked with the president for decades.

Biden’s debate performance drew a surprising amount of public criticism from some of his biggest fans, including former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, who appeared on a cable television panel immediately after the showdown.

“It was a really disappointing performance by Joe Biden in the debate. I don’t think there’s any other way to say it. His biggest challenge was to prove to the American people that he had the energy, the stamina, and he didn’t do that,” she told CNN.

Privately, his aides and allies were quietly rattled by Biden’s debate performance and wondered whether the campaign was salvageable, especially as the negative reviews continued to pour in.

HAS Camp David the weekend after the debateBiden’s family, particularly Hunter Biden and first lady Jill Biden, have encouraged the president to stay in the race and questioned whether his team had adequately prepared him. (Biden, for his part, has firmly stated that the debate disaster was “nobody’s fault but mine.”)

Shortly after, Hunter Biden’s presence — awaiting trial on three felony convictions in a gun case — in the White House has unsettled some people who worry about his influence with his father, according to two Democrats close to the White House who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.

Biden’s long-term strategy of limiting his public interactions, especially with reporters, has also been questioned. Biden has given fewer interviews than his modern predecessors and held fewer news conferences than any president since Ronald Reagan.

Bates said the strategy “is and always has been for the American people to hear directly from Joe Biden.” He noted that Biden gave an interview Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” has answered reporters’ questions more than 580 times and has traveled the country speaking directly to people.

White House officials recently expressed concerns about the The President and his abilities in stories have spread to the national media. One official who gave the alert to the New York Times sounded a bit like “Anonymous,” Trump’s employee who expressed his displeasure with the Trump presidency in a New York Times op-ed and later went public with his grievances.

“It’s not like under the last administration where we were trying to figure out who’s talking or who’s leaking information, that’s not something we do here,” Jean-Pierre said when asked about the official’s comments. “Everybody has their own opinion.”

She said she had not heard anyone make criticisms like those appearing in the posts.

In an effort to boost staff morale, Biden chief of staff Jeff Zients urged White House aides in an all-staff meeting last week to ignore the “noise” and focus on the task of governing.

There have also been public missteps. Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden had not been seen by his doctor since his physical, but the president later told members of his campaign in a private call that he had been seen by his doctor after feeling ill after returning from two grueling trips abroad.

White House advisers have refused for days to explain repeated visits by a neurologist to the White House that have sparked speculation that Biden was undergoing treatment, and Jean-Pierre misspoke when he raised the issue Tuesday.

Sunday, a Radio host quits job after news that she and another interviewer from another station had asked Biden questions that had been forwarded to them by the campaign.

The interviews were meant to be part of an effort to restore confidence in Biden’s ability not only to govern over the next four years but also to run his campaign, but the revelation only added to criticism that he couldn’t handle impromptu questions.

After news broke that the White House had offered preliminary questions to reporters, former White House communications chief Michael LaRosa issued scathing public criticism:

“Just when you thought the President’s communications teams had lost all credibility…they are now spiraling downward and determined to continue to humiliate the President and First Family with misguided and BAD media relations practices that are eroding his reputation by the day.”

___

Associated Press journalists Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.