Top aides for President Joe Biden reportedly attempted to keep him from unscripted events and long interviews using what they called a âwall.â
According to Fox News, the upcoming book âPerilâ by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa mentioned several gaffes Biden had during the early days of his time in the White House.
They wrote, âThat side of Biden â his tendency to at times be testy or mangle statements â was still with him and now part of his presidency.â
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 âunscripted events or long interviews,â as the outlet reports.
Woodward and Costa added, âThey called the effect âthe wall,â a cocooning of the president.â
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 Milleyâs 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 âroutineâ and meant âto reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability.â
Milley claimed they were âperfectly within the duties and responsibilitiesâ of his job.
He continued, âI think itâs 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.â
Milley also told the outlet he would âgo into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks.â
The book is set for release on Tuesday.
