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... Why it matters: The authors' reporting shows that even as the White House was moving to assure the public and the media of Biden's fitness, top administration officials were worried about his decline in the final years of his presidency.
The book is based on more than 200 interviews, mostly with Democratic insiders, almost all of which occurred after the 2024 election.
Driving the news: Several Cabinet secretaries told the authors that they frequently were boxed out from access to Biden in 2023 and 2024, when the 81-year-old president was running for re-election.
- - - One Cabinet secretary said Biden's top aides "shielded him in every meeting." From October 2023 on, "the Cabinet was kept at bay," the secretary said.
- - - "For months, we didn't have access to him. There was clearly a deliberate strategy by the White House to have him meet with as few people as necessary," the Cabinet secretary told the authors.
- - - "At one rare meeting during that time," the Cabinet secretary "was shocked by how the president was acting. He seemed 'disoriented' and 'out of it,' his mouth agape," according to the book.
- - - The secretary added that Biden's staff wanted to keep him happy and shielded him from bad news.
- - - "The staff did him wrong," the Cabinet member said. "If you were with him every day and you knew this was a problem, why didn't you go to him and say something?"
A second Cabinet secretary told the authors: ...
