WASHINGTON — Following President Biden’s debate fiasco against Donald Trump, the Democrat’s top lieutenants devolved into bickering over whether he should quit the 2024 presidential race, a scathing new House report revealed.
Former Biden aides came clean about the strife during sit-down interviews with investigators on the powerful House Oversight Committee over the summer, revealing that some of the 46th president’s closest confidants had their illusions shattered on the night of June 27, 2024.
“It is fair to say within a few days after the debate, he was aware of my view that I thought it was prudent to consider getting out of the race,” former White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients told investigators.
Zients stressed that he felt Biden was equipped to run the country, but was skeptical about whether he could actually defeat Donald Trump, as concerns over the incumbent’s acuity reached a fever pitch.
Then-Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and Secretary of Veteran Affairs Denis McDonough were among those expressing similar concerns, Zients told investigators.
“The fact of the matter was that President Biden was underwater across his administration, the caucus, donors, and the American people,” a House GOP report on the autopen controversy explained.
Zients also acknowledged that Biden’s struggles keeping dates and times straight worsened as he got older.
“I think it’s always been a challenge, as it can be for a lot of busy people,” Zients contended. “He might have that challenge more than others. And I would say, like the stumbling over words, I’d say there’s been some trend of that being more common across time.”
Meanwhile, Biden’s longstanding loyalists, such as senior adviser Mike Donilon and counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, were adamant that he stay in the race.
Others, such as senior communications adviser Anita Dunn, had concerns about whether Biden could win but generally seemed to want him to stick it out, according to Zients.
“She was worried about whether he could win re-election,” the former chief of staff said. “But I don’t recall — in fact, I’d be very surprised if there was any absolute statement that he can’t, because she believed he could.”
Ultimately, Biden announced the end of his campaign on July 21, 2024, three-and-a-half weeks after the infamous CNN debate.
Amid the internal back-and-forth over whether Biden should throw in the towel, almost everyone in his orbit agreed that he needed to do more public-facing events to allay voter concerns.
“The plan was about, ‘How do we get him out there more?’” Zients explained. “He did a lot of different things, but — were meant to build back public confidence that he was the right person to be the next President of the United States.”
A few hard-core Biden loyalists insisted the debate was nothing more than a surmountable bad night.
“It isn’t how the country perceived it. That just isn’t true,” Ricchetti told the committee when asked about the idea that the president was struggling with cognitive issues.
Donilon — who acknowledged that he was paid $4 million for his work on the Biden campaign and would have received a $4 million bonus if the Democrat won a second term — also said that “I do not believe with the voters that it produced a substantial change in the horse race.”
Three former White House officials — deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini, White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, and former first lady Jill Biden’s chief of staff, Anthony Bernal — exercised their Fifth Amendment rights and didn’t answer key questions about Biden’s mental acuity.
The House Oversight Committee dropped its blistering report on Biden’s use of autopen to sign key documents and cognitive stumbles.
The powerful panel also recommended that O’Connor, be investigated by the DC Board of Medicine for involvement in a “coordinated” cover-up of the 46th president’s decline.
