How Biden's Inner Circle Protected a Faltering President (NYT)

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/us/politics/biden-age.html

How Biden’s Inner Circle Protected a Faltering President
“Your biggest issue is the perception of age,” Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime strategist, told him in 2022, according to people who heard him.
By Katie Rogers, Adam Entous, Maggie Haberman and Carl Hulse
Jan. 17, 2025 Updated 7:58 p.m. ET

...

Mr. Biden acknowledged the concerns, but the warnings only ignited his defiant, competitive streak. In April 2023, without convening his family or having long deliberations with aides, he announced he was running again.

Now, as President-elect Donald J. Trump heads back to the White House, demoralized Democrats debate what might have been had the president bowed out in time to let a younger generation run. Mr. Biden, 82, has at the same time made the extraordinary admission that he might not have made it through a second term. “Who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?” he said in an interview with USA Today on Jan. 5.

The president’s acknowledgment has put a new spotlight on his family and inner circle, all of whom dismissed concerns from voters and Mr. Biden’s own party that he was too old for the job. And yet they recognized his physical frailty to a greater degree than they have publicly acknowledged. Then they cooperated, according to interviews with more than two dozen aides, allies, lawmakers and donors, to manage his decline.

They rearranged meetings to make sure Mr. Biden was in a better mood — a strategy one person close to him described as how aides should handle any president. At times, they delayed sharing information with him, including negative polling data, as they debated the best way to frame it. They surrounded him with aides when he walked from the White House to the waiting presidential helicopter on the South Lawn so that news cameras could not capture his awkward bearing.

...

[58Sunliner]

1. Yet somehow he managed to be one of the best presidents of our time.

[newdeal2]

2. No respect

I swear, even from the supposed liberal media like Colbert and Kimmel, they diminish his accomplishments and wisdom and harp on his age. With friends like these, we got what we deserved in November.

[spanone]

3. Our media loves the chaos. This is some hefty bullshit.

[lapfog_1]

4. I consider the NYT and the Washington Post to be part of the right wing

disinformation and propaganda network.

I don't believe a goddam thing they write... and we should treat them like other right wing propaganda outlets

[choie]

5. Three days before a fascist becomes president

and the NYT publishes a screed against Joe Biden. Fuckers.

[stopdiggin]

6. the Biden admin was aware of a 'perception of age' issue

The campaign and inner circle then worked to minimize or ameliorate that issue.
(as would be expected of any functioning competent organization?)

That about sum it up ??
(nothingburger spelled out over several pages)

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[Silent Type]

7. Think it might have made a difference with a legitimate primary. But it just doesn't matter now.

Time to look to mid-terms.

[Fiddlelady11]

11. Not if there

Aren’t anymore elections. Also Musk has found a way to change votes.

[ColinC]

8. Stupid fucking headline

[msongs]

9. login required nt

[Fiddlelady11]

10. This is such

Bullshit. As if tRump’s age isn’t an issue. NYT sucks again!

[FormerOstrich]

12. Fucking Hate THIS!!

I hear snide remarks about how the dems hid "covered up" the fact he had dementia, infirm, and incapable. I don't hear anyone countering it.

Then there is this BS. Just wait fools.....

makes me want to