WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Internal drama. Leaks. Second-guessing. The pressure and chaos swirling since Joe Biden\u2019s disastrous debate performance is causing cracks in a White House that until now had been marked by discipline and loyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For three-plus years, the Biden administration has been mostly a restrained and staid operation, defined more by an insistence on showcasing policy and an avoidance of palace intrigue. Aides generally kept any criticism of their boss or their jobs out of the public eye. Not lately, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reflected Tuesday on the extraordinary moment for the president and his team, as questions about the 81-year-old\u2019s age and mental capacity threaten to torpedo his reelection dreams. \u201cIt has been an unprecedented time,\u201d she said of scrutiny of the president. \u201cWe are meeting a new moment that has never really existed before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden\u2019s shaky June 27 debate performance<\/u><\/a> has led to an unusually public blame game, leaks of private phone calls between the president and Democrats<\/u><\/a> and questions about his son Hunter Biden\u2019s presence<\/u><\/a> at the White House. It has prompted current White House officials to anonymously vent their concerns about Biden\u2019s ability to do the job and even led to the departure of a radio journalist after details emerged that the Biden campaign had fed her and another reporter interview questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not to mention all the drama playing out on Capitol Hill<\/u><\/a>, where a handful of House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to step aside and there is closed-door hand-wringing by others over whether to publicly come out against the president as party leaders try to bring members to heel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden has been adamant that he is not leaving the race<\/u><\/a>, and the chorus of criticism may be dying down, but it\u2019s not clear yet whether the White House drama has been a momentary lapse or will continue as the nation barrels toward the 2024 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andrew Bates, a senior deputy press secretary, said Biden had \u201crestored compassion, honesty, and competence to the Oval Office\u201d and built the most diverse administration in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs President Biden has fought for and delivered the strongest record of any modern administration, there wasn\u2019t a single week that Washington didn\u2019t doubt him and his team,\u201d Bates said. \u201cThe staff are deeply proud of him and each other and know the key is to focus on the work and the American people, not the noise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The buttoned-up vibe at the White House under Biden has been intentional \u2014 he wanted his administration to be viewed as a return to normal governing operations after the leaky Trump White House<\/u><\/a>, when half-baked policies ended up on the front pages and details of private meetings appeared in public sometimes while they were still underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was also reflective of the deep loyalty of Biden\u2019s inner circle, where many top advisers have worked with the president for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden\u2019s debate performance prompted a surprising amount of public criticism from some of his biggest fans, including former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, who was on a cable TV panel immediately after the faceoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was a really disappointing debate performance from Joe Biden. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other way to slice it. His biggest issue was to prove to the American people that he had the energy, the stamina \u2014 and he didn\u2019t do that,\u201d she said on CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In private, aides and allies were quietly shaken over how Biden performed in the debate, and wondered whether the campaign was salvageable, particularly as the negative reviews kept pouring in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Camp David the weekend after the debate<\/u><\/a>, Biden\u2019s family \u2014 in particular Hunter Biden and first lady Jill Biden \u2014 encouraged the president to stay in the race, and questioned whether his staff had prepared him properly. (Biden, for his part, has said firmly the debate disaster was \u201cnobody\u2019s fault but mine.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not long after, the presence of Hunter Biden<\/u><\/a> \u2014 awaiting sentencing on three felony convictions in a gun case \u2014 at the White House was unsettling to some people, who worried about his influence with his father, according to two Democrats close to the White House who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And there\u2019s been the second-guessing over the long-term strategy to limit Biden\u2019s public interactions, especially with journalists, under a mandate led by senior aides. Biden has granted fewer interviews than his modern predecessors, and he\u2019s held fewer news conferences than any president since Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bates said the strategy \u201cis and has been for the American people to hear directly from Joe Biden.\u201d He noted Biden gave an interview Monday to MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe,\u201d has taken questions from reporters more than 580 times and travels the country speaking to people directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n White House officials recently vented their concerns about the president and his abilities in stories<\/u><\/a> spread across national media. One official who raised alarms on The New York Times sounded a little like \u201cAnonymous,\u201d the Trump staffer<\/u><\/a> who signaled discontent about the Trump presidency in a New York Times op-ed and later went public with his grievances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is not like the last administration where we try to find out who is speaking or leaking, that\u2019s not something we do here,\u201d Jean-Pierre said when asked about the official\u2019s comments. \u201cEverybody has their opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said she had not heard anyone voice criticisms like those appearing in publications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an effort to boost staff morale, Biden chief of staff Jeff Zients urged White House aides last week during an all-staff meeting to tune out the \u201cnoise\u201d and focus on the task of governing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There have also been public missteps. Jean-Pierre told reporters Biden<\/u><\/a> had not been seen by his doctor since his physical, but the president later told campaign workers on a private call that he had been seen by his doctor after he felt sick returning from grueling back-to-back foreign trips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n White House aides declined for days to explain a neurologist\u2019s repeated visits to the White House that had sparked speculation that Biden was getting treatment, and Jean-Pierre misspoke when talking about the issue Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n