White House comms shop's credibility questioned after Biden bows out: 'Scandal'
The White House communication team’s credibility surrounding knowledge of President Biden's political future is in the national spotlight after telling the public for weeks that Biden would not drop out of the 2024 race while simultaneously battling questions from the press about mounting concerns over his health.
"All you can do is shake your head. No one at the White House has any credibility when it comes to Joe Biden’s health. From Vice President Harris to the White House physician to everyone in the press office, they covered up the president’s frailties. They hid the truth. It’s a scandal," former George W. Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told Fox News Digital.
Voters and social media commenters across the nation have sounded off in recent days that the communications team was "out of the loop" as concerns mounted surrounding Biden's health and subsequent claims that the president would exit the 2024 presidential race.
When Biden did announce his departure from the race, only a handful of White House and campaign officials – such as Vice President Kamala Harris, chief of staff Jeff Zients and campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon – were made aware ahead of the letter, while some senior officials learned of the decision in a Zoom call, and most others through Biden's public announcement on X, media outlets reported.
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The White House communications shop, which is led by press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, had for weeks shut down claims Biden would drop out, while describing Biden's health as above board and no reason for concern.
"Absolutely not," Jean-Pierre declared in a press briefing on July 3 when asked if Biden had any plans to exit the 2024 race.
Jean-Pierre's messaging had been backed up by White House spokesman Andrew Bates, who frequently issued statements to the media that Biden was in the race to win while brushing off questions about the president's health.
"The president told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100-days agenda to help working families," Bates said last week in a comment to the New York Times.
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"That is not happening, period," Bates said Friday when asked if members of the Biden family were discussing the president’s exit plan. "The individuals making those claims are not speaking for his family or his team – and they will be proven wrong. Keep the faith."
Soon after the June 27 CNN debate, worried party leaders mounted a pressure campaign on Biden to exit the race, as dozens of elected Democrats commended the president for his service in the White House, but called on him to pass the torch to another candidate better suited to take on former President Trump. Media reports cited sources who described top Democrats such as former President Barack Obama, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., as working in the background on efforts encouraging Biden to drop out.
Although the media reports mounted that Democratic leaders were working to galvanize the party without Biden ahead of the DNC, the White House communications team continued brushing off the reports as hogwash.
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Bates, for example, went on a social media campaign shooting down media reports that Biden’s exit from the race was imminent. Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre continued touting the president’s record in office on her X account, including that Biden "will continue to defend reproductive freedom" and that POTUS had "been hitting the road and meeting directly with the American people" in the days following the debate.
Despite the full-throated denial that there were even discussions that the president should bow out, Biden ultimately stepped aside in a tweet on Sunday afternoon.
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"It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term," Biden said in his letter posted to X Sunday afternoon announcing his departure from the race.
Media reports shortly following the announcement indicated White House staffers and members of the campaign were shocked by the news, learning of the decision via the X post and through a Zoom call on Sunday.
Biden had been self-isolating at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after a COVID-19 diagnosis last week. He returned to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and will address the nation in more depth regarding his exit from the race on Wednesday evening from the Oval Office.
Following his exit from the race, social media commenters sounded off that key White House communications team staffers were "out of the loop" on Biden’s plans to leave the race or mocked staffers such as Bates.
The calls for Biden to drop out of the race were born out of his poor debate performance last month against Trump, where he stumbled over his words, lost his train of thought and appeared more subdued than his typical public demeanor. The June 27 debate opened the floodgates to traditional allies and legacy media outlets to call on him to drop out, though conservatives and critics had for years said Biden’s mental fitness was concerning.
As questions surrounding the president’s health mounted, the White House communications team juggled an onslaught of questions regarding whether the president was suffering with an illness such as Parkinson’s disease.
The media’s interactions with Jean-Pierre and the communications team became more heated, as reporters pressed the spokeswoman for answers on the president’s health, and called into question the team’s credibility.
Jean-Pierre was pressed by the media during a fiery exchange earlier this month to speak to whether a Parkinson’s disease expert’s eight visits to the White House were related specifically to Biden’s health. Jean-Pierre, instead, refused to confirm the doctor by name. She did confirm a neurologist had examined Biden three times for his three yearly physicals since taking office.
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"They’re in the White House visitor logs. It’s public. I looked it up before I came out here. It is right there for anyone to see," CBS News reporter Ed O’Keefe said during a presser early this month when questioning the press secretary about Dr. Kevin Cannard being listed eight times on White House visitor logs.
"I cannot from here confirm any of that because we have to keep their privacy. I think they would appreciate that too," Jean-Pierre said.
"The patient or the doctor?" O’Keefe asked.
"We have to keep their privacy," Jean-Pierre replied.
"It is public," NBC News correspondent Kelly O’Donnell jumped in to say, while O’Keefe added, "you’re going to allow this to fester longer, Karine, unless the White House just answers the question."
Jean-Pierre was grilled yet again in another press conference about Cannard’s visits, where she erroneously said one of the meetings this year was not related to Biden’s health.
"Can you say whether that one meeting [between Cannard and O’Connor] was related to care for the president himself?" the Associated Press asked.
"I can say that it was not," Jean-Pierre responded.
The press secretary backtracked later that day, saying Cannard’s Jan. 17 meeting at the White House was in fact related to Biden’s health, specifically to the president’s yearly physical.
Reporters also called on the White House to allow Biden's White House physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, to speak to them directly about the president's health. The administration, however, argued that his written updates on Biden's health and reports on his check-ups were sufficiently transparent.
"The thorough summaries Dr. O’Connor puts online for the public are far more extensive than the presidential medical documentation released during the previous administration," Bates told Fox News Digital earlier this month when asked if O'Connor would speak directly to the media. "In fact, the American people heard from Dr. O’Connor through his daily written reports on President Biden’s COVID case for over two weeks straight – a condition he had the honesty to disclose right away, unlike Trump’s physicians in office."
O’Connor has released repeated statements and updates on the president’s health since Biden took office, including when he was diagnosed with COVID, as well as updates on Biden’s annual physicals. He has, however, not joined a press briefing to field journalists' questions.
"Dr. O’Connor teaches at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Science, completed U.S. Army flight surgeon training, and was among the first American service members in Afghanistan and Iraq. His unique expertise is sought across the medical community, in which he is respected for his candor, attention to detail, and work ethic," Bates continued.
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The White House has said that Biden does not suffer from a disease such as Parkinson’s or dementia, or other types of degenerative illnesses.
Following Biden’s exit from the race, members of the GOP are calling on Biden to resign from the White House altogether.
"If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement Sunday.
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"If the Democrat party has deemed Joe Biden unfit to run for re-election, he's certainly unfit to control our nuclear codes," House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said Sunday. "Biden must step down from office immediately."
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, had also called on Biden to resign in the lead-up to his bombshell announcement.
"If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President?" Vance posted on X hours before the announcement. "Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that President Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief. There is no middle ground."