Democratic operatives have urged Joe Biden to avoid public appearances as dramatic revelations about his cognitive state during the 2024 presidential race hit the party’s efforts to oppose Donald Trump.
The former US president has given his first interviews in recent days since leaving office — a bid to defend his legacy just as damning accounts reveal his mental decline in office and his inner-circle’s efforts to conceal it.
But strategists said Biden’s reappearance was causing more damage to a party that is struggling to recover from Kamala Harris’s shattering defeat to Trump in November.
“The Biden family and certain Biden aides’ attempt at this woefully premature, unasked for redemption tour . . . does not come across as goodwill redemption. It comes across as ripping a scab off that should not be ripped off,” said Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist.
A much anticipated book from journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, due out next week, includes fresh revelations about Biden’s lapses, including a claim that he failed to recognise Hollywood actor and longtime friend George Clooney at an election fundraiser last June.
Clooney later publicly called for the president to drop out of the White House race. Biden did so in late July — but weeks too late to give Harris’s run a chance, according to advisers quoted in the book.
The 82-year-old former president claimed in a recent television interview that he could have won if he had remained in the race, despite the drop in his polling numbers after his disastrous June debate against Trump.
“This just isn’t helping. Unfortunately the right thing to do is just to not add fuel to the fire . . . and just keep your head down,” Reinish said.
Almost a year since the debate deepened the electorate’s concern over Biden’s mental acuity, Democrats are now bracing for further damaging headlines just as they try to gear up for a 2026 midterm election fight.
Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, by CNN host Tapper and Axios reporter Thompson, alleges that his team deliberately concealed the president’s decline.
Two other post-election books published in recent months — Fight and Revenge — also revealed aides’ concerns about Biden’s mental acuity and his reluctance to drop out even as Trump opened up a polling lead.
Biden’s representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
The ex-president’s new media blitz comes after months of relative silence and appears designed to defend his time in office — but has only renewed the focus on his decline.
The president struggled in an appearance on ABC’s chat show The View last week, when he said the claims of cognitive lapses were “wrong” before wandering off the topic. His wife Jill quickly intervened.
Biden said in another recent interview, with the BBC, that he didn’t “think it would have mattered” if he had dropped out of the race earlier.
Matt Bennett, co-founder of the centre-left Third Way think-tank, said Biden’s appearances were “a distraction from the story” Democrats wanted to talk about.
“He’s not doing himself any favours,” Bennett said. “He’s not showing the world that it was all a lie. He’s clearly having age-related problems when he goes on these shows. And so he can’t really put the whole thing to bed by showing how sharp he is if he’s not that sharp.”
Some top Democratic politicians have also begun openly criticising the ex-president’s decision to seek a second term — a possible signal that they see Biden’s legacy as a threat to their own ambitions.
Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s transport secretary and a possible contender in the 2028 White House race, conceded this week that the ex-president’s bid for a second term was “maybe” a mistake.
Illinois’ Democratic governor JB Pritzker said the timing of Biden’s withdrawal was a “problem”. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said there was “no doubt” that Biden suffered cognitive decline in office.
The reminders of Biden’s frailty come as US TV screens relay images of Trump’s high-energy tour of the Middle East, where he has struck deals and met world leaders, providing a sharp contrast with his predecessor.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to the differences between him and Biden in recent days, pouncing on the perceived weakness of the former president in speeches in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.
“Trump is always looking for a foil,” said Anthony Coley, a Democratic strategist and former adviser to Biden’s justice department.
“And his political instincts are fine tuned enough to know that at this part of his presidency, the best foil for him to use is somebody who the American people routinely did not think was up for a second term.”
Trump’s director of communications said Biden’s BBC interview showed he had “clearly lost all mental faculties” and accused his team of “abuse” for allowing him on air.
As party infighting persists, Democrats are anxious to end the debate over Biden as they seek new leadership.
“It’s time for a fresh start,” said Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and founder of Solidarity Strategies.
“But it’s hard to do that when we have to constantly be talking about [Biden’s] appearances . . . when we should be talking about what the new vision is and who the new leaders of the party will be.”
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