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Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 194

What Just Happened?

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Trial Balloon · Ep. 194: What Just Happened?

Biden Aide Describes an ‘Out of It’ President

April 2, 2025 · 7:45 am ET · Leave a Comment

In a new book, Joe Biden’s former White House chief of staff Ron Klain paints a devastating picture of the then president’s mental and physical state before the debate with Donald Trump that sent his 2024 campaign into a tailspin, The Guardian reports.

According to Klain, who returned to help prep Biden for his debate, it turned out Biden “didn’t know what Trump had been saying and couldn’t grasp what the back and forth was” and left debate preparation “and fell asleep by the pool.”

He obsessed about foreign leaders, saying “these guys say I’m doing a great job as president so I must be a great president”; “didn’t really understand what his argument was on inflation” and “had nothing to say about a second term other than finish the job.”

The Gatekeepers
How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency
by Chris Whipple · Crown · 2018
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Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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