Senator Suggests Biden Staffers Could Be Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome: 'Profile of an Abuser'
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah questioned whether President Joe Biden’s closest staffers might be suffering from a serious condition that is brought on by the psychological strains of being in the presence of an “abuser” for too long.
On Twitter, Lee shared his thoughts on a Monday morning story that claims Biden routinely lashes out at people by calling them names and otherwise treats them as disposable fodder as he navigates year three of his historically damaging presidency.
Early Monday morning, Alex Thompson of Axios cited numerous sources close to the Biden administration for a profile of the president’s “rage.”
Current and former Biden aides recounted a temperamental boss whose insults included statements such as, “G******it, how the f**k don’t you know this?!,” “Don’t f**king bullsh*t me!” and “Get the f**k out of here!”
One former staffer who was offered anonymity by the outlet stated of the alleged abuse, “No one is safe.”
Thompson’s reporting was well-sourced and questions the “lovable grandpa” narrative surrounding Biden.
NEW: Behind closed doors, Biden has such a temper that some aides try to avoid meeting him alone.
POTUS go-to’s:•”God dammit, how the f**k don’t you know this?!”
•”Don’t f**king bullsh*t me!”
•”Get the f**k out of here!”My look at Biden’s fury https://t.co/gF638X5lCm
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) July 10, 2023
Lee, whose social media commentary is sharp, snarky and wholly under-appreciated, responded to the report with a seven-tweet thread he shared on Twitter.
The senator wrote, “Politicians who treat staff like this shouldn’t be trusted with power — let alone nuclear codes.”
The Utah Republican further noted Biden has for decades been portrayed as one of the few career politicians known for treating everyone with respect.
But he also opined that Biden’s staffers might be suffering from a condition that is mostly experienced by hostages and abused women.
Lee speculated people in Biden’s inner circle could be experiencing “Stockholm syndrome” — which is a term that was coined following a European bank robbery that lasted nearly a week in the early 1970s.
The Cleveland Clinic writes:
“This condition gets its name from a 1973 bank robbery incident that happened in Stockholm, Sweden. During the six-day standoff with police, many of the captive bank employees became sympathetic toward the bank robbers. After they were set free, some bank employees refused to testify against the bank robbers in court and even raised money for their defense.”
Here is Lee’s Twitter thread in its entirety:
2. If Biden is this willing to mistreat and belittle his own staff (on whom he relies and with whom he must interact every day), what does that say about how much he’s willing to look out for the hundreds of millions of Americans who will never meet him?
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 10, 2023
4. Then again, as to point 3(a), there are senators who are kind and respectful to colleagues—and to everyone else, when in public—but verbally abuse staff when they think no one is watching. Perhaps Biden was one of them, and the article suggests he was.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 10, 2023
“This is the profile of an abuser,” Lee wrote.
6. In fact, those exact words came from Biden’s longtime Senate chief of staff. The term “Stockholm syndrome” comes to mind. This is the profile of an abuser.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 10, 2023
7. I wish the article spoke only in general terms or relied only on one or two uncorroborated stories that could easily be dismissed as one-off anecdotes. I’d be less concerned. But alas, the article paints no such picture.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 10, 2023
Lee’s speculative take could be serious, it could have been facetious or it could have been a blend of both.
In any event, Biden’s outbursts have been public for some time, so the version of Biden shared by Axios is on brand for the short-tempered president:
WARNING: The following video contains language that some viewers might find offensive.
If scores of people working in the White House are experiencing signs of psychological trauma, it might explain why no one has come forward to sound alarm bells and call for the invocation of the 25th Amendment.
Biden’s tenure as commander-in-chief has been marked by a myriad of policy failures and a series of personal, interfamily scandals. All of it has been anything but presidential — especially the cocaine.
Yet no one close to Biden has come forward and spoken out in any substantial way about what is happening in the West Wing.
Perhaps there are no real patriots in the White House.
But as Lee speculated, many of these people might actually be so tormented that they are now siding with the man whose outbursts have resulted in them gaslighting themselves into believing the Biden experiment has succeeded when clearly it hasn’t.
There is no reason to believe Biden treats people with any sort of dignity.
Not only was Biden credibly accused of an alleged and graphic sexual assault that his former staffer Tara Reade claimed happened in the 1990s.
Biden has a beautiful granddaughter through his son Hunter that he refuses to acknowledge and who the family refuses to dignify by allowing her to use the family name.
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