Former President Joe Biden’s allies were planning for the now 82-year-old’s death and the event that someone else would have to take over his presidential bid as early as 2023, according to an excerpt of Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen’s new book.
Behind the scenes, Biden’s allies started to plan for the event that another candidate would need to take his place in the presidential race, whether it be because he would drop out or pass away, Parnes and Allen write in an excerpt of their book, which was shared with the Hill. An aide to former Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly carried around a list of Republican federal judges that Trump hadn’t appointed in the event she needed to be unexpectedly sworn in, Parnes and Allen wrote. The idea was that being sworn in by one of the judges on the list would be seen as more “credible to Republicans,” the excerpt says. (RELATED: Kamala Campaign’s Latest Reported Scapegoat For Failure: Her Chair Height)
Harris was unaware of the list until the former staffer departed in January 2023, but he told his colleagues that “he should be notified immediately if something happened to Biden because he had a communications strategy prepared,” Parnes and Allen write.
President Biden froze and then had a verbal blunder, saying he “beat Medicare,” minutes after he kicked off his debate with former President Donald Trump on Thursday pic.twitter.com/enAH0xG13a
— New York Post (@nypost) June 28, 2024
Despite some allies’ concerns that Biden might not make it through the 2024 presidential election, those closest to the former president believed he would survive the contest, the book authors write.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think anyone in that inner circle was presenting the president any contrary advice that this thing is not going to be easy or maybe this is not the best thing for the Democratic Party,” one Biden ally told Parnes and Allen.
US President Joe Biden trips while boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on March 19, 2021. President Biden travels to Atlanta, Georgia, to tour the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and to meet with Georgia Asian American leaders, following the Atlanta Spa shootings. (Photo by ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images)
With concerns about Biden’s advanced age growing, Parnes and Allen revealed that Biden was seeing a makeup artist before trips or meetings with aides to help cover up obvious signs of aging.
“Biden consistently made these makeup appointments, but he sometimes canceled the briefings that were to follow,” Parnes and Allen write.
Worry about the former president’s fitness reached new levels in 2023. After giving the commencement address at the Air Force Academy’s graduation ceremony, Biden tripped and fell. The White House repeatedly insisted that he was “fine” after the incident. (RELATED: ‘Time To Invoke The 25th Amendment’: Public Reacts To Biden’s Onstage Tumble)
Karine Jean-Pierre does not understand why a reporter is asking her questions about Biden’s mental and physical stamina pic.twitter.com/xJcdjuaNq2
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 30, 2023
Throughout the year, while allies were seemingly planning for the event that Biden’s diminished faculties got the best of him, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was maintained publicly that there was nothing wrong with the former president.
“If you watch him, you’ll see that he has a grueling schedule that he keeps up with — that sometimes some of us are not able to keep up with,” Jean-Pierre told reporters in February 2023.
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