PrintWASHINGTON — President Joe Biden was seething.
In a private meeting at the White House in January, allies of the president had just told him that his poll numbers in Michigan and Georgia had dropped over his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Both are battleground states he narrowly won four years ago, and he can’t afford any backsliding if he is to once again defeat Donald Trump. He began to shout and swear, a lawmaker familiar with the meeting said.He believed he had been doing what was right, despite the political fallout, he told the group, according to the lawmaker.
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For months, Democrats have watched the 2024 campaign unfold with rising alarm as the sitting president struggles to gain ground against his defeated predecessor. Frustrations rippling through the party have reached the top, with Biden at times second-guessing travel decisions and communications strategies that have left much of the electorate clueless about his record, interviews with nearly 20 lawmakers, present and past administration officials and Biden allies show.
Schadenfreude: Biden is flying into rages now against his staff
Joe Biden is not happy about his polling numbers.
According to NBC News, citing 20 anonymous staffers and allies:
That's got to be miserable stuff for staffers on the receiving end, particularly since, as NBC reports, they're taking the brunt of his out-of-control anger.
He's blaming his staff for many things, not just his bad poll numbers, which hover around 38% public approval at last reading, according to the NBC report, a number so low no president running for re-election in modern times has overcome them. Past presidents, such as Jimmy Carter and George Bush, Sr. were defeated on higher public approval ratings than Joe has. Nobody's as low as Joe.
Biden claims that his staff is "cocooning" him away from the public as if his many gaffes and physical stumbles weren't reason enough to do so.
Here's an icky quote from a staffer, which has public relations written all over it.
“The president and his advisers have all been eager for him to be out there more and planned for that to take place at the start of the election year, as has been the norm for past incumbents seeking re-election,” the second person familiar with the matter said.
Some of staff have complained that Biden is playing defense, trying to shore up his base, not trying to persuade new voters, which sounds about par, particularly since recent reports say he's hemorrhaging working class black and Latino voters who are moving to President Trump.
Others say he should be let out more often and walk faster, even though others still say he's falling flat on his face when he does.
Still others say he needs an army of surrogates to carry his message since he can't do it alone.
You can tell from the report that the staff don't know what to do, but there Biden is, raging at them for his miserable polling numbers.
NBC unquestioningly insists that Biden has a good economy to brag about and voters just don't get it.
That's where the real problem is. No, the economy is not good, and voters know it. Grocery and gas and heating prices are sharply higher while salaries are lower and housing is out of the question for many.
Illegals have taken many of the "jobs created" and if not illegals, legal immigrants, which sounds like replacement theory.
It's wretched stuff based on the world's most wretched presidential record. It frankly stinks.
But that's not where Biden is. He's bellowing at staff about why voters don't love him.
They will never be able to tell him the truth and he won't look for it. But look forward to staff resigning as he rages at them -- and lots of tell-all books.
Image: Screen shot from live television broadcast, filtered.
