Biden's strange use of teleprompter in donor's home infuriated supporters, dashed expectations
"For most of the campaign, Biden only ever spoke with the assistance of a teleprompter, even for small private audiences," a new book, "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America," reported. "The presence of the machine made for extremely awkward interactions in intimate settings, and irked donors who had paid thousands of dollars for a personal view of the president, not expecting a canned speech they could see on TV."
"He once read from a teleprompter in front of thirty people in the open kitchen of a Palo Alto mansion," the book continued. "Donors complained for months about the president's reliance on the machine. Aides defended the teleprompter as a tool to keep the famously garrulous president on schedule."
"2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America" was released Tuesday and authored by Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal, Tyler Pager of the New York Times and Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post. It details the 2024 presidential campaign cycle, including Biden's cratering health issues.
The book detailed that just days after Biden's disastrous June 2024 debate against President Donald Trump that opened the floodgates to typical Democrat supporters turning their backs on Biden ahead of the election, the president attended a campaign event at Virginia Democrat Rep. Dan Beyers' house without a teleprompter. The book claims Biden only spoke for about six minutes.
"At Beyer's house, the campaign was eager to prove Biden could speak off the cuff. There was no teleprompter to be found. The president blamed his poor debate performance on a heavy travel schedule and said he 'almost fell asleep onstage.' He spoke for about six minutes," the book detailed.
The word "teleprompter" appears in the new book a dozen times, mostly referencing the president's reliance on the machine, as well as concern among some staffers that using a teleprompter was crucial to the president avoiding the unexpected as his health deteriorated.
"The officials who planned events at the White House tried to avoid any surprises or unpredictable situations. If the president was going to speak, he would go to the podium, deliver remarks from a teleprompter, and leave. There was no room for creativity or spontaneity," the book states in a section on how Biden had fallen during a commencement in 2023 and staff devised plans to prevent another public fall in the future.
"Everyone could see the president was aging. He sometimes failed to recognize former staff at functions. Still, current aides insisted his decline was strictly physical, and even then they acknowledged it only by trying to Bubble Wrap the president and avoid any more catastrophes. Staff limited direct access to the president, keeping meetings with him small," the book continued.
Biden entered his 2024 reelection cycle already racked by claims and concerns that his mental acuity had slipped and he was not mentally fit to continue serving as president, which was underscored by special counsel Robert Hur's report in February 2024 that rejected criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials, citing he was "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." Fox News has been reporting on Biden's apparent health decline since at least 2020.
Biden brushed off the claims throughout 2024, until his debate against Trump in June of that year, when he was seen tripping over his words, speaking in a far more subdued tenor than during his vice presidency, and losing his train of thought at times. The debate opened the floodgates to criticism among Democrats that Biden should step aside and pass the mantle to a younger generation of Democrats.
After weeks of the White House and campaign staffers vowing Biden would stay in the race and to "keep the faith," Biden announced in a social media post on a Sunday afternoon in July 2024 that he dropped out of the race. He endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris to run for the Oval Office, giving her just over 100 days to launch her own campaign that failed to rally enough support when up against Trump.
Fox News Digital reached out to Biden's office regarding the claims in the new book, but did not immediately receive a reply.
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