White House Staffers Attempt to Avoid Alone Time with Biden Due to His Repeated Vulgar Outbursts: Report
A new report says that in private, President Joe Biden has a short temper and drops f-bombs all over the White House.
The report came from Axios, which summed it up by saying this side of Biden can “paint a more complicated picture of Biden as a manager and president than his carefully cultivated image as a kindly uncle who loves aviator sunglasses and ice cream.”
The report said some aides intentionally avoid solo meetings with Biden, so they don’t have to take the brunt of his temper alone. “Some take a colleague, almost as a shield against a solo blast,” the report said.
“No one is safe,” one administration official said.
“There’s no question that the Biden temper is for real. It may not be as volcanic as Bill Clinton’s, but it’s definitely there,” said Chris Whipple, author of “The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House.”
Whipple’s book mentioned former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who said, “I said to [Biden] multiple times, ‘I’ll know we have a really good, trusting relationship when you yell at me the first time.'”
“Psaki wouldn’t have to wait long,” according to the book.
Biden also occasionally snaps in public. In the past month, he has snapped at the media when asked questions about a variety of topics.
Biden Snaps at Reporter, Taliban Now Capitalizing on His Tantrum for Propaganda Purposes https://t.co/Ucrc69AOv1
— Tea Party Patriots (@TPPatriots) July 4, 2023
The New York Times took note of his private side in 2021 when it called him “a president with a short fuse.”
Axios reported on a 2021 eruption against then-COVID czar Jeff Zients that is still talked about, although a representative of Zients would not reveal what was said.
Biden is also prone to interrogate his aides on issues until he asks a question they cannot answer, which the report said is called “stump the chump” or “stump the dummy.”
Biden’s outbursts at staff are not rages. They’re ‘admonitions.’ https://t.co/UrerFORZ6h https://t.co/vWx7Ykf3gK
— Byron York (@ByronYork) July 10, 2023
Jeff Connaughton, who was a former Biden campaign and Senate aide, cited Biden’s temper in his book, “The Payoff: Why Wall Street Wins.”
Connaughton wrote that as a senator, Biden was an “egomaniacal autocrat … determined to manage his staff through fear.”
Another example of this was a moment during the 2008 presidential campaign when a 23-year-old fundraising staffer entered a car with Biden and said, “Okay, senator, time to do some fundraising calls.”
Biden fired back, “Get the f*** out of the car.”
Biden “hides his sharper edge to promote his folksy Uncle Joe image — which is why, when flashes of anger break through, it seems so out of public character,” Connaughton said.
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