WASHINGTON – Despite his status as the nation’s oldest president in history, Joe Biden felt he was being “milked” by his staff, triggering the 80-year-old’s Irish temper, according to a new book on the inner workings of the White House.
The president’s staff regularly struggles to clean up the mess Biden makes with off-script comments, but the effort isn’t always appreciated, according to Franklin Foer’s “The Last Politician,” which went on sale Tuesday.
The tension peaked in the early days of Russia’s war on Ukraine when Biden, in a fit of excitement, bombed what would otherwise have been a pro-Kyiv victory speech, Foer wrote.
March’s speech was very important to Biden.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley was “calling the president” when he drafted it, according to a book by an Atlantic staff writer and former New Republic editor.
“This is you, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall speech,” Milley told Biden – referring to former President Ronald Reagan’s impactful words toward the end of the Cold War.
A new book claims that Joe Biden felt “milked” by his staff. AP
Foer writes, “At this late stage of his career, [Biden] has largely stopped giving speeches with the cadence and imagery aspiring to be described as Kennedyesque.
“But, here at the time, he strives for arrogance and builds his speech to culminate in a grand exhortation about the moral imperative to thwart authoritarianism.”
Biden later said in his speech, “A dictator who wants to rebuild an empire will never extinguish the people’s love of freedom.
“Cruelty will not break their desire to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia – freely people refuse to live in a world of despair and darkness.”
The president’s staff regularly struggles to clean up the mess Biden makes with off-script comments, but the effort isn’t always appreciated, according to Franklin Foer “The Last Politician.” Penguin Press
But instead of ending there as planned, the speech culminated in an extraordinary statement that sounded like Biden calling for the ouster of Russian President Vladimir Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot stay in power.”
The statement alarmed Americans and US international allies who feared it would trigger retaliation and escalation from Putin – and his fully stocked nuclear arsenal.
Upon leaving the stage, “Biden immediately knew that the White House had to explain its mistakes,” according to Foer.
No stranger to comments made by the president, Biden’s staff quickly took the initiative to clarify the controversial statement. But they did so without consulting the president, which drew the octogenarian’s anger and resentment, according to the book.
“At that time [he] piled into the exiting vehicle [the speech,] his aide has issued a statement reiterating his sentence,” Foer wrote. “Suddenly, the press was not impressed by his rhetoric or his diplomatic success; he again described him as a stubborn person who has no self-control.”
Biden’s speech culminated in an extraordinary statement that sounded like Biden calling for the ouster of Russian President Vladimir Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot stay in power.” Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS
The coverage infuriated Biden — who Foer said “like Donald Trump … is a voracious consumer of television” — and he “went home, ending his successful tour, feeling sorry for himself.”
Deep down, he “knew that he had made a mistake” by making the comment in the first place, Foer said. But instead of taking responsibility for the flub, he “pissed off his assistants for giving the impression that they had cleaned up his mess.”
“Instead of owning up to his failure, he raged at his friends about how he was treated like a child,” Foer wrote.
“Was John Kennedy ever born that way?”
Asked Tuesday to respond to the book’s claim that Biden felt infantilized, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre rebuked the question, calling the book’s revelations “absurd claims.”
“”No one treats the President of the United States, the commander in chief, like a baby,” he said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
