Top White House Aides Reportedly Used a 'Wall' to Keep Biden Away From Unscripted Events
Top aides for President Joe Biden reportedly attempted to keep him from unscripted events and long interviews using what they called a “wall.”
According to Fox News, the upcoming book “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa mentioned several gaffes Biden had during the early days of his time in the White House.
They wrote, “That side of Biden — his tendency to at times be testy or mangle statements — was still with him and now part of his presidency.”
Several aides for Biden told reporters Chief of Staff Ronald Klain and then-White House advisor Anita Dunn sought to prevent gaffes by keeping Biden from “unscripted events or long interviews,” as the outlet reports.
Woodward and Costa added, “They called the effect ‘the wall,’ a cocooning of the president.”
The authors acknowledged the incidents with Biden continued even with protection from such events. They noted the president announced he made a deal on bipartisan infrastructure, but then explained it depended on the passing of another spending package.
The upcoming book made headlines last week with details surrounding Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley’s secret phone calls with his Chinese counterpart, as IJR reported.
On Friday, Milley spoke out about the phone calls, telling The Associated Press they were “routine” and meant “to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability.”
Milley claimed they were “perfectly within the duties and responsibilities” of his job.
He continued, “I think it’s best that I reserve my comments on the record until I do that in front of the lawmakers who have the lawful responsibility to oversee the U.S. military.”
Milley also told the outlet he would “go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks.”
The book is set for release on Tuesday.
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