Joe Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate has sparked an ongoing meltdown within the Democratic Party that has yet to subside. His ABC News interview didn’t quell any concerns about his mental health. He might have accentuated them with the gross poll denialism exhibited by the president. There have been so many stories about discord, anger, anxiety, and Joe losing his mental faculties that the primary one of concern is getting lost in the noise: who is running the country?
The tales of pervasive senility are not new or lost on conservatives; we’ve seen Joe and know he’s half-dead. But an article in Semafor from an unnamed source from a “scared” Biden aide paints a picture that is unsettling about the inner workings of the White House, which in some ways is a Nixonian throwback regarding secrecy (via Semafor):
Midday on the Fourth of July, I received a call from a government official with regular access to the West Wing, who said they had reached a breaking point and wanted to sound the alarm.
The person insisted on careful ground rules: No details on the specific policy area they’d work on, no gender, age, or sexual orientation. Their credibility basically depends on my vouching that they’re a serious person, which I can do — though I should also say this person has nothing to say about the president’s physical condition, and was limited to their own experience outside Biden’s tight inner circle.
Here is the assertion this person would like to get across: It’s unclear even to some inside the West Wing policy process which policy issues reach the president, and how. Major decisions go into an opaque circle that includes White House chief of staff, Jeff Zients (who talks to the president regularly) and return concluded. (The big exception to this pattern, they said, is foreign policy.)
This pattern had already been a topic of discussion, and curiosity, among the high-powered aides who work in and around the White House. The rituals of paperflow are technical, but they say they’re surprised by the lack of briefings to the president, and of readouts from consultations with the president and worry about the possibility of decisions “being made without him.”
My source has no reputation for being involved in factional fights on hot button issues, and no obvious ulterior motive for picking up the phone.
“I’m super proud of the policies,” the person said. “I’m talking to you because I’m incredibly upset and scared for the country and I would like to do what I can.”
Of course, the White House denied what this source told Semafor, but even Ben Smith, who penned the piece, said that Biden’s command and decision-making processes have been questioned since the president’s disastrous debate. There’s deep skepticism that age hasn’t changed anything about Biden’s decision-making process, but there's no solid evidence that Jill is in charge, though who knows?
“My source’s call — as they say, from inside the building — is a mark of why the panic inside the Democratic Party is running so deep right now,” wrote Smith. “Even inside the West Wing, not everyone is sure.”
Yet, last week, Axios wrote about three high-ranking staffers who appear to be de facto governing the country, much like how this article implied that White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients was running the country. The cocoon, or coup-coon, being placed around Biden has reportedly robbed the president of all independence.
The committee of the merciful rest includes Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, the first lady's top adviser Anthony Bernal, and longtime aide Ashley Williams, who joined the deputy chief of staff's office.
Who is running the country? We have two pieces with different characters, but both paint the same picture: Joe Biden might not be in charge. People who weren’t elected are running the nation. We need hearings about this.