{"id":339291,"date":"2025-10-28T21:55:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/339291\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T21:55:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:55:21","slug":"bidens-putrid-debate-performance-sparked-civil-war-among-embattled-prezs-top-brass-bombshell-house-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/339291\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s putrid debate performance sparked civil war among embattled prez\u2019s top brass: bombshell House report"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Following President Biden\u2019s<\/a> debate fiasco against Donald Trump<\/a>, the Democrat\u2019s top lieutenants devolved into bickering over whether he should quit the 2024 presidential race<\/a>, a scathing new House report revealed.<\/p>\n

Former Biden aides came clean about the strife during sit-down interviews with investigators on the powerful House Oversight Committee<\/a> over the summer, revealing that some of the 46th president\u2019s closest confidants had their illusions shattered on the night of June 27, 2024.<\/p>\n

Members of former President Joe Biden\u2019s team were uneasy about him carrying on with his reelection bid last year. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is fair to say within a few days after the debate, he was aware of my view that I thought it was prudent to consider getting out of the race,\u201d former White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients told investigators. <\/p>\n

Zients stressed that he felt Biden was equipped to run the country, but was skeptical about whether he could actually defeat Donald Trump, as concerns over the incumbent\u2019s acuity reached a fever pitch.<\/p>\n

Then-Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and Secretary of Veteran Affairs Denis McDonough were among those expressing similar concerns, Zients told investigators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact of the matter was that President Biden was underwater across his administration, the caucus, donors, and the American people,\u201d a House GOP report on the autopen controversy explained<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Zients also acknowledged that Biden\u2019s struggles keeping dates and times straight worsened as he got older.<\/p>\n

Former White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients believed that Joe Biden needed to drop out after his fumbling debate. UPI<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s always been a challenge, as it can be for a lot of busy people,\u201d Zients contended. \u201cHe might have that challenge more than others. And I would say, like the stumbling over words, I\u2019d say there\u2019s been some trend of that being more common across time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Biden\u2019s longstanding loyalists, such as senior adviser Mike Donilon and counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, were adamant that he stay in the race.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Others, such as senior communications adviser Anita Dunn, had concerns about whether Biden could win but generally seemed to want him to stick it out, according to Zients.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was worried about whether he could win re-election,\u201d the former chief of staff said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t recall \u2014 in fact, I\u2019d be very surprised if there was any absolute statement that he can\u2019t, because she believed he could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken had been concerned about former President Biden\u2019s reelection prospects. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Biden announced the end of his campaign on July 21, 2024, three-and-a-half weeks after the infamous CNN debate.<\/p>\n

Amid the internal back-and-forth over whether Biden should throw in the towel, almost everyone in his orbit agreed that he needed to do more public-facing events to allay voter concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan was about, \u2018How do we get him out there more?’\u201d Zients explained. \u201cHe did a lot of different things, but \u2014 were meant to build back public confidence that he was the right person to be the next President of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former President Joe Biden faced a Democratic mutiny after struggling to complete his train of though during his debate against President Trump last summer. Getty Images<\/p>\n

A few hard-core Biden loyalists insisted the debate was nothing more than a surmountable bad night. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t how the country perceived it. That just isn\u2019t true,\u201d Ricchetti told the committee when asked about the idea that the president was struggling with cognitive issues. <\/p>\n

Donilon \u2014 who acknowledged that he was paid $4 million for his work on the Biden campaign and would have received a $4 million bonus if the Democrat won a second term \u2014 also said that \u201cI do not believe with the voters that it produced a substantial change in the horse race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three former White House officials \u2014 deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini, White House physician Dr. Kevin O\u2019Connor, and former first lady Jill Biden\u2019s chief of staff, Anthony Bernal \u2014 exercised their Fifth Amendment rights and didn\u2019t answer key questions about Biden\u2019s mental acuity.<\/p>\n

The House Oversight Committee dropped its blistering report on Biden\u2019s use of autopen to sign key documents and cognitive stumbles. <\/p>\n

The powerful panel also recommended that O\u2019Connor<\/a>,\u00a0be investigated by the DC Board of Medicine\u00a0for involvement in a \u201ccoordinated\u201d cover-up of the 46th president\u2019s decline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Following President Biden\u2019s debate fiasco against Donald Trump, the Democrat\u2019s top lieutenants devolved into bickering over…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":339292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[167377,37983,5229,131784,82,167378,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,80,5620,67,586,132,5230,68,5621,1154,2969,5223],"class_list":{"0":"post-339291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-2024-presidential-debates","9":"tag-2024-presidential-election","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-house-oversight-committee","12":"tag-joe-biden","13":"tag-joe-biden-drops-out-of-presidential-race-2024","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-republicans","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-house-of-representatives","28":"tag-us-news","29":"tag-usa","30":"tag-white-house"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115454025866240315","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}