The Biden campaign has sustained several damaging leaks regarding post-debate concerns about the president’s political viability.
The leaks fueled fears that President Joe Biden will lose in November. They also appeared to expose the establishment media’s initial failure to report on Biden’s stamina, glitches, and likability since elected.
Since 2021, Biden has struggled to remain physically upright. Biden tripped, tumbled, and stumbled at least five times during his presidency. He also fell off his bike.
The media, however, kept reporting the White House line that Biden was healthy and vigorous. They reported the White House’s talking points about Biden’s mental health with the absence of a cognitive test.
Then came Biden’s first debate on June 27, and the American people saw Biden operate in real time for themselves. The media reported what voters saw. Unable to spin Biden’s debate performance, it appeared that Pandora’s box was opened.
Then the leaks came, apparently fueled by concerns that Biden will lose reelection.
Below are five damning leaks post-debate:
ONE: Biden Weighs Dropping Out of Race
Biden told an ally he is weighing dropping out of the presidential race, according to a New York Times report:
President Biden has told a key ally that he knows he may not be able to salvage his candidacy if he cannot convince the public in the coming days that he is up for the job after a disastrous debate performance last week.
The president, who the ally emphasized is still deeply in the fight for re-election, understands that his next few appearances heading into the holiday weekend — including an interview scheduled for Friday with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — must go well.
…
Mr. Biden is slowly reaching out to Democratic elected officials and has a meeting with Democratic governors at the White House scheduled for Wednesday evening. He is also continuing to reach out to people he has long trusted and has told at least one person that he is open to the possibility that his plans to move on from his debate performance — and flip the focus back to his challenger, Mr. Trump — may not work.
The White House denied the report.
TWO: Biden’s Nap Schedule
Biden took naps during each of the six days of debate prep, which never began before 11:00 a.m., a person familiar with the process told the Times.
Biden, who admitted Tuesday during a fundraiser that his back-to-back trips to Europe impacted his rest, was so drained by the trip that his debate prep was cut short by two days so he could spend time resting before rehearsals began with advisers at Camp David, the Times reported based on multiple sources:
The uncomfortable occurrences were not predictable, but seemed more likely when he was in a large crowd or tired after a particularly bruising schedule. In the 23 days leading up to the debate against former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Biden jetted across the Atlantic Ocean twice for meetings with foreign leaders and then flew from Italy to California for a splashy fund-raiser, maintaining a grueling pace that exhausted even much younger aides.
The recent moments of disorientation generated concern among advisers and allies alike. He seemed confused at points during a D-Day anniversary ceremony in France on June 6. The next day, he misstated the purpose of a new tranche of military aid to Ukraine when meeting with its president.
On June 10, he appeared to freeze up at an early celebration of the Juneteenth holiday. On June 18, his soft-spoken tone and brief struggle to summon the name of his homeland security secretary at an immigration event unnerved some of his allies at the event, who traded alarmed looks and later described themselves as “shaken up,” as one put it. Mr. Biden recovered, and named Alejandro N. Mayorkas.
The White House denied the report.
THREE: Biden Staffers Turn to Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris is the top alternative to replace Biden atop the Democrat ticket, seven senior sources from the Biden campaign, the White House, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) told Reuters Wednesday.
Harris appears to be the top choice because Biden’s donations can most easily be transferred to his vice president. She also enjoys the greatest name identification and the best polling numbers against former President Donald Trump, according to a Tuesday CNN poll, the sources told Reuters.
Challenges remain, however. Harris’s approval rating is extremely low, at 39 percent, below the 50 percent threshold that incumbents historically need to win reelection. She also failed as the border czar to secure the open southern border.
FOUR: Aides Attack Biden’s Character
Biden’s aides are “scared shitless” during briefings with him, as he refuses to take advice from anyone other than top aides,” Politico reported.
“It’s like, ‘You can’t include that, that will set him off,’ or ‘Put that in, he likes that,’” one senior administration official told the outlet. “It’s a Rorschach test, not a briefing. Because he is not a pleasant person to be around when he’s being briefed. It’s very difficult, and people are scared shitless of him.”
“He doesn’t take advice from anyone other than those few top aides, and it becomes a perfect storm because he just gets more and more isolated from their efforts to control it,” the official added.
The White House denied the report.
FIVE: Obama Raises Concerns About Biden
Former President Barack Obama privately expressed concern about Biden’s chances for reelection, several people familiar with his remarks told the Washington Post:
Former president Barack Obama has privately told allies who have reached out to him that President Biden’s already tough path to reelection grew more challenging after his shaky debate performance on Thursday — a harsher assessment of the presidential race than his public comments, according to several people familiar with his remarks.
Obama separately spoke directly with Biden by phone after last Thursday’s debate to offer his support as a sounding board and private counselor for his embattled former vice president, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. It is unclear how directly Obama addressed Biden’s performance and his path to reelection on the call.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
