Lindy Li, a former top Democratic fundraiser, believes President Joe Biden is only doing himself a disservice by promising the public another explanation of why he decided to run for re-election in 2024 despite mounting concerns about his age and cognitive performance.
In her view, Biden’s upcoming memoir, “Promise Me, America,” will only serve to reopen painful wounds that Democrats have struggled to move past since the 2024 election loss.
In a way, she believes the book is a bit of a microcosm of Biden’s presidency.
“They’re thinking, ‘Why can’t you just shut the f— up?’ Prior to me leaving the party, they wanted nothing to do with this guy. It was so bad that when, finally, Biden exited on July 21, there was no goodbye party other than a staffer one in the Rose Garden. There was nothing,” Li said.
“Jill has him writing books that no one wants to read instead of fully enjoying his retirement,” Li said, referring to Jill Biden, the former first lady.
“Just like she had him out running for president — a presidency that no one wanted, not even Democrats — instead of enjoying his retirement. He should have been in retirement 10, 20 years ago, but they need the money.”
Biden described his upcoming book in a post to X Wednesday morning.
“It’s about the challenges we face as a nation. About the decisions I made and why I made them,” Biden said, igniting mockery on social media. “It’s about why I chose to run for reelection and why I chose to step aside.”
“The first lie of Joe Biden’s book launch: ‘I’ve written a book,’” conservative communicator Steve Guest wrote.
“Joe Biden couldn’t sign his own pardons. Now he’s ‘written’ a book, which Democrats forced him to release after the midterms so he wouldn’t be in the news to remind people how bad he was,” wrote Outkick founder Clay Travis. “Who in the world is buying this book?”
“Who do we think wrote this book,” Daily Wire editor-in-chief Brent Scher wondered.
“Did the autopen write this too,” Missouri Republican Rep. Jason Smith questioned.
Li, who is publishing a new book of her own, “Unburdened,” later this year, was privy to many of the party’s internal discussions, research and panic behind the scenes, which indicated Biden enjoyed only shaky support even among his own camp long before he ultimately dropped out of the 2024 election.
In light of what she knows, Li doubts there is a way for Biden to spin his exit that won’t do further harm to his own image, an image his campaign went to great lengths to protect.
Li recalled how the Biden campaign confiscated her phone at a 2023 event.
“The [Democratic National Committee] was routinely confiscating the phones of top donors with social media followings,” Li said, referring to a party fundraising and campaign group.
“They took away my phone because they knew I was a prolific tweeter. And I posted something on Instagram that night, and a finance director from the DNC called me at around 10 or 11 that same night to instruct me to delete everything from Instagram about Biden that I posted that day.
“The reason is because [Biden] seemed infirm. He seemed weak.”
Now on this side of his presidency, Li believes he will further aggravate Democrats who have wanted to move past the 2024 election and reignite questions of why Biden wasn’t asked to step aside sooner.
“It’s very clear they were trying to hide the fact that instead of having a candidate they could be proud of, they were busy hiding a candidate that they were deeply ashamed of,” she added.
Fox News’ Ashley DiMella contributed to this report
