HIDE THE BIDEN
Staffers ‘terrified what he might say,’ want him to shut up
crafted messaging, according to Politico.
The agita level is so high that some staffers will either mute or turn off his remarks, the news site reported on Thursday.
“I know people who habitually don’t watch it live for that reason,” one official told Politico.
The president’s advisers try to manage him tightly, telling him to either decline to answer or field just a few questions from reporters, Politico reported.
And Biden is known to acknowledge, “I’m really going to get in trouble,” before opening the floor to questions.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki admitted during an interview in May that allowing Biden, 78, to take questions is “not something we recommend.”
“In fact, a lot of times we say ‘Don’t take questions,’ ” she said.
“He’s going to do what he wants to do, because he’s the president of the United States,” she added.
The White House said Biden likes to tailor his own messaging.
“As the president has shown over and over since he announced his candidacy more than two years ago, he’s the most effective communicator for his vision and his agenda,” spokesman Mike Gwin told Politico in an e-mail.
“The president deeply values the role of the press — that’s why he regularly takes time to answer their questions in interviews, press conferences and the dozens of media availabilities he’s done since taking office.”
Biden is aware of his propensity as a “gaffe machine” and spoke about it during a teleconference last month in which he thanked US ath
letes who had competed in the Olympics in Tokyo.
“Anyway, I should get going. I can get myself in trouble here. But I get in trouble for things I say, I know. No one ever doubts I mean what I say; the problem is I sometimes say all that I mean,” he said near the end of the meeting.
While Biden sees himself as a straight shooter, his verbal blunders can deliver a self-inflicted blow.
Speaking at the White House on July 8 about his deadline to leave Afghanistan, Biden pooh-poohed the possibility that the Taliban would return to power.
“The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” he said.
A little more than a month later, Taliban fighters seized Kabul.
On multiple occasions, Biden has begun to leave a press briefing only to return and take questions.
In one instance, the president turned around and lashed out at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins after she shouted a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Why are you so confident he’ll change his behavior, Mr. President?” Collins asked at the end of a news conference in Geneva after June’s summit between Biden and Putin.
“I’m not confident he’ll change his behavior! What the hell? What do you do all of the time? When did I say I was confident?” Biden said as he walked toward her with his finger in the air.
“I’m not confident of anything, I’m just stating the facts,” Biden told her, before saying, “If you don’t understand that, you’re in the wrong business.”
He later apologized to Collins for the outburst.
A few days before his summit with Putin, Biden let slip at a meeting of the G-7 nations in Britain that his White House handlers provide him a list of people to call on during news conferences.
“I’m sorry, I’m going to get in trouble with staff if I don’t do this the right way,” Biden said after taking a question from a Bloomberg reporter.
At the end of the news conference, Biden was walking away when a reporter shouted a question.
“I’m going to get in trouble with my staff. Yeah, go ahead. But pretend that I didn’t answer you,” the president said.
Biden has been criticized for not taking questions at solo press conferences and limiting exchanges with reporters as he’s preparing to leave the White House.
Most recently, he did not take questions following his address at the White House on Thursday in which he laid out plans to require federal workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and businesses of more than 100 employees to mandate vaccinations or weekly testing among their workers.
But at a White House press conference about the coronavirus in May, Biden indicated to reporters that he was supposed to leave but continued taking questions.
“You guys are bad. I’m not supposed to be answering all these questions,” the president said. “I’m supposed to leave, but I can’t resist your questions.”
And on Tuesday, Biden was speaking to union leaders for a Labor Day celebration at the White House and noted what he was supposed to do at the end.
“Now, I’m supposed to stop and walk out of the room here,” Biden said as he concluded his speech. “I’m going to stop, and with your permission, I’m going to walk into the room because I want to say hello to all of you.”