Joe Biden: The MIA President
“I definitely get more done when he’s not here,” Biden White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told Politico Playbook. “No question about it.”
Throughout the course of presidential history, it hasn’t been uncommon to see the opposition party and the mainstream media give the president some grief over their accessibility as well as the number of times they go on vacation, are seen out golfing, etc.
Though presidents are, of course, rarely ever truly “on vacation” considering all the communication tools they have at their disposal, it’s a part of the game and one we’ve seen play out numerous times over the last 30 or so years alone with former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.
But with Joe Biden, the particulars are a little different. Unlike others who ran for office in the past, Joe Biden spent the last nine months of his 2020 presidential campaign mostly sequestered in his basement and with limited contact with the media and the public, ostensibly on safety grounds due to the Wuhan virus pandemic.
And after he took office, that basement hideout strategy carried over, although in some instances where it’s happened it’s been in a less obvious way than it was in 2020.
For instance, he’ll appear in public at the White House for a speech or to make an announcement, but rarely takes questions from the press. He’ll give a speech on the road, but many times will simply ignore reporters. On rare occasions when a yelled question from a reporter gets through to Biden, his handlers work to quash it immediately, hurrying Biden away from the throngs of questioners as though they present a threat to his very existence.
He’ll participate in virtual events and summits where the press gets invited, but they’re quickly ushered out with the cameras cut as soon as he’s done giving his canned remarks and/or turns to the other panelists to start talking specifics.
Here we are barely a year and a half into his presidency, and according to the GOP’s Biden vacation tracker, Biden has spent 35% of his time in office on vacation:
Joe Biden has spent about 35% of his presidency on vacation. pic.twitter.com/jVmejzV5CC
— GOP (@GOP) August 17, 2022
What that calendar doesn’t include is how long Biden was quarantined due to his back to back bouts with COVID-19, which kept him behind closed doors for 16 days.
In fact, here’s a look at what Biden’s schedule has looked like since mid-July:
Biden’s last month >>
July 21-July 26: Quarantine 1
July 30-August 6: Quarantine 2
August 7: Rehoboth Beach
August 10-August 16: South Carolina
August 16-August 20: Wilmington
August 20-August 24: Rehoboth Beach https://t.co/PZgZae6WkA— Gabe Fleisher (@WakeUp2Politics) August 18, 2022
The one blip on that schedule was when he jetted from South Carolina to D.C. to sign the bogusly named “Inflation Reduction Act” on Tuesday, but a few hours after that he was headed out again to his home state of Delaware. I should also note that during some of his time in quarantine, he also made appearances at a few virtual events.
Biden’s disappearance from day to day activities at the White House has become so pronounced in recent weeks that some high-profile officials in his inner circle appear to have taken the reins on his behalf:
While the president is away, Biden’s staff are taking the lead on communications, as they appear to have no interest in putting the president in front of a camera.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain briefed Politico’s Playbook on Friday with their August messaging effort, which is underway without the president.
“I definitely get more done when he’s not here,” Klain bragged. “No question about it.”
He defended hiding Biden from the public, as the president has racked up a record 150 days away from the White House in his home state of Delaware.
“I don’t think it’s true he’s out there less than his predecessors,” Klain said. “I just think Donald Trump created an expectation of a president creating a shitstorm every single day.”
[…]
Susan Rice, Biden’s director of the Domestic Policy Council, also emerged with a messaging strategy about the rise of anger in the country from Trump supporters after the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago.
Rice announced details of Biden’s “unity summit” planned in September at the White House.
No doubt Biden’s propensity for gaffes and for frequently coming across as incoherent and out of it are the driving factors for why his interactions with the press and public are so tightly controlled, including in one bizarre incident where a White House comms staffer dressed as an Easter bunny actually shooed him away from talking to onlookers and journalists during the annual White House Easter egg roll earlier this year:
EASTER BUNNY to Joe: This way… pic.twitter.com/joU3SmdORZ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 18, 2022
It's like his arch nemesis showed up. pic.twitter.com/YjP0MFNIf6
— Brett R. Smith (@BrettRSmith76) April 18, 2022
As I’ve said before, one doesn’t need to be conspiracy-minded to believe that all of this is by design, which makes one wonder that considering how often Biden is out of sight and out of mind and not being held accountable by the media, is it really him negotiating all these backroom deals with Sen. Joe Manchin and others or is it those who have been characterized by Biden’s critics as co-presidents, like Klain?
I mean when you consider the purported legislative “victories” he now has under his belt (if his allies in the press are to be believed), you’d think Biden would want to be out front and center. But he’s not.
As author Gabe Fleisher observed, Biden’s light schedule “Calls to mind the 2020 campaign, which Biden won while staying relatively out of sight. Suggests that Biden is most successful when people mostly don’t see/hear from him.”
Make of that what you will.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
Biden has literally had more time off than I have from my job (INCLUDING MY WEEKENDS OFF) and he’s supposed to be the fucking President.
Remember when the left was trying to bitch about Trump playing golf and how a whole bunch of the drones would post HE’S PLAYED XXX ROUNDS OF GOLF like it was some kind of sick burn?
Biden has already taken more time off in 18 months than Trump did in 4 years.
Don’t you first have to see action before you can become missing in action?
If a soldier, who was never deployed and never saw action, goes missinig don’t they call it AWOL?
Biden has become child-like, except when he’s shot-up with speed. He’s not in charge of ANYTHING.
Susan Rice is running our federal government. Meaning: the Obama treasonous parasites are running our government.
This is Biden off speed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvqJQRmE4mg
And if we are to believe Obama was a Manchurian Candidate of sorts, who is controlling him?
I was never one for conspiratorial thinking and the existence of Mr Big, but it’s pretty darn obvious that, between George Soros and Klaus Schwab (and to some extent minor players like Bill population-control Gates), there are people willing and capable of buying politicians by the boatload. But just like with the clot-shot, most people are either too brainwashed, ignorant, apathetic or frightened to question it out loud.
Someone is calling the shots, and they’re more powerful than Susan Rice and Obama.
I think it’s just government by committee. It shows.
Why would someone downvote thefinereport’s post?
Obama got in.
The Hidden Junta runs the country. That’s OK for the Dems because being “in power” is everything.
Hmmm, a good question for Da Nang Dick dontcha think?
Hmmm, a good question for DaNang Dick dontcha think?
You can say that again!
;-{)}}}
Pretty sure his main job is to be the scapegoat for the irreparable damage that’s happening to the country. Who really cares if he’s in the white house or not? Anyone with half a brain can see he’s not the one calling the shots in the executive branch.
Omne bright spot for the various Democrat candidates this election: if he stays in Deleware or DC, he won’t be “trying to help” by making speeches and campaign appearances.
Biden’s brain has been MIA for years.
That’s true, but it’s not a matter of conjecture anymore. He really is a fragile old man, except when he’s knocked-up with speed.
Dr Feelgood keeps busy these days refilling that Aricept drip
They have pulled off some rather impressive short term “fixes” for him. I hope they share their medical solution with the public some day… a lot of people would like just a few moments of reality as they plunge into the abyss.
It’s temporary, and it could be doing more damage than a sane family member (Jill Biden is an ambitous idiot) would allow.
I wonder… is his doctor’s surname Morel?
It was last sighted in a frying pan in a “This is your brain on drugs” commericial in 1980.
“He’s (brain)dead, Jim “
“But it looks like there’s some movement.”
“That’s not his brain, Jim. That’s his pacemaker.”
It’a the big spider riding his spinal cord.
That what is all that fuzzy stuff all over the place?
Cobwebs.
And, with his mind so gone, he thinks it’s Big Spider Beck, the cornettist.
That’s Glenn Beck the comedian. He came up with a funny name for Trump in 5 minutes but after two years of deep thinking he is unable to come up with one for Biden.
Being afk from the job is what people like about Biden. It’s what he was elected for! People wanted to get away from the daily chaos of the Trump presidency.
Anyways, the President is never truly on vacation. I don’t see what’s wrong with staying away from the uni party nest of vipers in Washington DC, where the White House and presume ably every other government building is likely bugged and listened into by three or more agencies.
It would be a good thing for governance if the president spent all four years away from DC.
Don’t worry: Biden is not “there” anywhere is physically is.
Dead people who voted for Biden wanted to get away from the daily chaos of the journoactivism that occurred during the Trump presidency. It was absolutely ridiculous agitprop…and the same people have the gall to lecture us now about dangerous rhetoric.
>> Being afk from the job is what people like about Biden
Are you sure? I thought people liked the inflation.
Joe Biden is stupid. He has been making “gaffes” for over 45 years. The dinosaur media, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat party, have been covering up for him for decades. Now he has demintia. His family and party are commiting elder abuse, and should be prosecuted.
Jill Biden was having the time of her life, being a shadow president – until she “Kamala’d” herself, by showing the world what an unlikeable idiot she is.
“Biden’s disappearance from day to day activities at the White House has become so pronounced in recent weeks that some high-profile officials in his inner circle appear to have taken the reins on his behalf”
Senile Joe was NEVER in charge. It was always the plan for others to run things with him as the patsie (patsy?) they pretend is the boss.
That some people are finally catching on to the corrupt arrangement has more to do with their stupidity than with Biden’s or the administration’s condition.
I think this is even simpler than that.
I agree that Biden has “never” been in charge ( and never was intended to be more than a figurehead)
On the rest.
I do believe his “mental deterioration” is now passed the point of no return and his handlers know this. This has nothing whatsoever to do with “leftist”, “stupid” or anything else- this is simple clinical mental degradation due to whatever actual condition he has and is never going to improve.
They are attempting to limit his vulnerability ( and theirs) by limiting his exposure
And if he resigns after the midterms, I expect Kamala Harris to nominate Liz Cheney as her VP. She is the only person who could probably get confirmed by a majority of House and Senate right now.
Out of sight, out of his mind. It would definitely be worth the price of admission to see him in a real debate (no lefty hack “moderators”) with President Trump. It would be EPIC!
I seem to recall a certain level of “debate” about how many times Pres. Trump played golf. At least he could, all while juggling persecution from the left and actually running the country. Biden has trouble putting on his jacket!
And I do recall some insinuations about Pres. Trump and Ivanka, yet, even with a diary, nobody speaks of Biden’s shower schedule with his daughter.
The mind boggles.
Honesty, what do you expect from a completely corrupt “media”? It didn’t boggle our minds when Pravda continually put out the b.s. it did for the Soviets.
Our media – Fox included – is in on the scam.
Fox Radio News sounds like NPR.
By 2024 they’ll be able to run his White House even if he doesn’t have a pulse.
A few weeks ago Biden said that he has cancer. I submit that his prolonged absence is for off-the-record chemotherapy.
Biden has a lot more than cancer.
His brain has degenerated to mush.
“Biden has spent 35% of his time in office on vacation”
The other 65%, he’s spent on standby.
He’s been asleep 90% of the time.
The other 10% was eating pudding.
Everyone knows they are lying but no one wants to do anything about it.
RNC counted all Saturdays and Sundays. A week is made up of 27% weekend days. On the RNC’s calendar, he was “on vacation” on 79 weekend days and 75 weekdays. There were 565 total days, and 405 weekdays from Feb 1, 2021 through Aug 20, 2020. That means he was out 19% of weekdays. Since the White House insisted he was working full-on during his bout with covid, I’m not willing to subtract off those days.
So, I would say, the real amount of time off was 19%. Or, close to 1 in 5 days.
Can we stop pretending the media would hold him accountable? Please? Could we acknowledge the media is what it is? Could we stop pretending to care that Joe Biden is afraid of making gaffes so stays away from the media arm of his own party?
In addition to the reality (media are partisan hacks Joe Biden is just aware of how gaffe prone he is) people who like the media are 100% likely to be Democrats who will not be reached by running stories about how the poor media is locked out.
Stories about too much vacation time is decades old at this point and time honored. It was run about Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and George W Bush. The impact was zero nobody cares if Joe Biden is communicating with his staff in Delaware or D.C. they care about the substance of what he is doing not where he is while doing it.
That just about sums it up right there.
Missing in Action would be a dream. We would be far better off with nobody at all making decisions than the bad decisions this clown car of an administration has made. If you were trying to destroy the entire country, you wouldn’t do even the smallest thing different.
For 8 solid years, Valerie Jarrett made EVERY decision that required Presidential approval. Obama was just the stuffed shirt that read the teleprompter.
We’re supposed to be shocked now that Susan Rice is making all of the decisions, while senile pedophile Joe is eating ice cream?
How is it that the entire US Government is conspiring to keep Biden’s absence under wraps? Does anyone care that no elected person is running the country? It’s shocking to me. Let’s face it, even if he were at the White House, he’s not actually acting as President.