In The News 5 April 2025

Former Biden chief of staff reveals the obvious

The Highland County Press - Staff Photo - Create Article

President Joe Biden’s former White House chief of staff Ron Klain paints a devastating picture of the then-president’s mental and physical state before the June 2024 debate with Donald Trump that sent his campaign into a tailspin, resulting in his relinquishing the Democratic nomination to Kamala Harris.

Klain served Biden from 2021-23, then returned to his side last June to run debate preparation as he had for numerous Democratic presidents before.

According to Klain, it turned out that Biden “didn’t know what Trump had been saying and couldn’t grasp what the back and forth was;” and left preparation and fell asleep by the pool. 

(Biden) was obsessed about foreign leaders, saying “these guys say I’m doing a great job as president, so I must be a great president.” He “didn’t really understand what his argument was on inflation” and “had nothing to say about a second term other than finish the job.”

As described by Klain to author Chris Whipple, at one point Biden had an idea. “If he looked perplexed when Trump talked, voters would understand that Trump was an idiot. Klain replied: ‘Sir, when you look perplexed, people just think you’re perplexed. And this is our problem in this race.”

Whipple’s book, "Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History," will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

For more, go to https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/02/biden-ron-klain-trump-deb….

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