The dam is deteriorating. On Saturday, we shared the story about some officials admitting anonymously that Joe Biden is only “dependably engaged” during the hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.—before or after that, not so much. This behavior, known as “sundowning,” is not desirable in a commander-in-chief.
A new report on Sunday reveals additional tactics employed by the Biden inner circle to shield the declining president from press scrutiny and even White House staff.
The most damaging allegations this time come from former White House deputy director of photography Chandler West, who posted a critical Instagram story about his former boss after the debate.
Axios reporter Alex Thompson states that the outlet has obtained screenshots of West’s post.
News: Post-debate, the WH’s former deputy photo director Chandler West wrote on Instagram
"It's time for Joe to go,” per screenshots obtained by Axios.
Reached by phone, West said: “the debate was not the first bad day, and it's not gonna be the last."https://t.co/Zgw3jyBFrn pic.twitter.com/TGFmm4peUG
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 30, 2024
West argued that it was time for the president to walk away:
“It’s time for Joe to go.” That’s what Chandler West, the White House’s deputy director of photography from January 2021 to May 2022, wrote in an Instagram story after the debate.
“I know many of these people and how the White House operates. They will say he has a ‘cold’ or just experienced a ‘bad night,’ but for weeks and months, in private, they have all said what we saw last night — Joe is not as strong as he was just a couple of years ago,” West wrote, according to screenshots obtained by Axios.
Reached by phone, West said he wrote the post because “the debate was not the first bad day, and it’s not gonna be the last.” He declined to comment further.
Former White House deputy director of photography Chandler West had better stay away from hotel balconies for a while. Speaking in the wake of Biden's disastrous TV debate, he said, 'I know how the White House operates. They will say he had a 'cold' or a 'bad night,' but for… pic.twitter.com/cI2Bp9NrkQ
— Edward White (@Editorialz) June 30, 2024
Biden’s behavior stunned many in the White House in part because Biden’s closest aides — often led by Jill Biden’s top aide, Anthony Bernal, and deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini — took steps early in his term to essentially rope off the president.
Even the White House’s residence staff, which serves the first family in the mansion’s living quarters, has been kept at arm’s length.
A former residence official told Axios that Jill Biden was “so protective of the president, and then Anthony just protects her, and they often wouldn’t let us do anything for them.”
“The separation between the family and the residence staff was so big, so divided,” the former official said. “It’s not supposed to be and usually isn’t, even in the Trump White House.”
