Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Axios Tries to Water Down Biden’s Explosive Temper Towards Aides and Staff

  Legal Insurrection

Is this an attempt by Axios to make Biden appear mentally sharp?

"Alex Thompson at Axios published one of the most lenient and sympathetic pieces to explain that President Joe Biden’s harsh temper behind closed doors is not a big deal.

"He is known to lash out at aides and staff:

In public, President Biden likes to whisper to make a point. In private, he’s prone to yelling.

  • Behind closed doors, Biden has such a quick-trigger temper that some aides try to avoid meeting alone with him. Some take a colleague, almost as a shield against a solo blast.
  • The president’s admonitions include: “God dammit, how the f**k don’t you know this?!,” “Don’t f**king bullsh*t me!” and “Get the f**k out of here!” — according to current and former Biden aides who have witnessed and been on the receiving end of such outbursts.

"One official said, “No one is safe.”

Biden supposedly went off on then-COVID Czar Jeff Zients when the country didn’t have enough tests when the Omicron variant started to spread.

"But Zients is now Biden’s chief of staff.

"I guess getting yelled at by the president is “an internal initiation ceremony,” meaning “if Biden doesn’t yell at you, it could be a sign he doesn’t respect you.”

"Chris Whipple notes in his book The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House that former press secretary Jen Psaki once said, “I said to [Biden] multiple times, ‘I’ll know we have a really good, trusting relationship when you yell at me the first time.'”

"But the anger is expressed in interrogations and not tantrums: “He’ll grill aides on topics until it’s clear they don’t know the answer to a question — a routine that some see as meticulous and others call ‘stump the chump’ or ‘stump the dummy.'” . . .

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