White House aides cut off outside access to former President Joe Biden, which ultimately backfired and worsened his cognitive function, according to a new book.
The book, ‘Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History,’ published Tuesday, claims the White House kept Biden from socializing even with those he regarded as friends and allies.
‘Even Biden’s acquaintances were kept at bay,’ Chris Whipple, a former producer for CBS’ ’60 Minutes,’ wrote. ‘Bill Daley, former White House chief of staff to Barack Obama, paid frequent visits to one of the president’s senior advisors in the West Wing. ‘I went to the White House a dozen times,’ he told me. ‘Never once did somebody say, ‘Oh, come on in and see the president.’ Never. Everything was scripted.’
Not everyone in the White House thought it was a wise strategy, according to the book. Whipple wrote that one White House aide suggested ‘walling Biden off from the world was a grave mistake.’
‘‘They were afraid he might say the wrong thing or might feed the mental acuity narrative,’ he told me. ‘And so he started seeing fewer and fewer people. They allowed his faculties to atrophy. But I think, like knives, they have to be sharpened. They get sharpened by rubbing them up against steel. And they don’t get sharpened by sitting in a drawer,’’ Whipple wrote.
‘Uncharted’ chronicles the 2024 election cycle and the aftermath of Biden’s appearance at the presidential debate with Donald Trump June 27 that prompted Biden to bow out of the race in July.
The book also details how, after the debate, Biden conducted an interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos July 5 in an attempt to prove to the public his mental faculties were intact amid calls for him to exit the race.
But Whipple wrote that Biden sounded ‘semi-coherent’ during the interview, which occurred weeks before Biden withdrew his candidacy July 21.
‘Stephanopoulos questioned the president gently, like a grandson,’ Whipple wrote. ‘Afterward, when I asked the ABC anchor by email for his impressions, he replied: ‘Heartbreaking up close.’’
A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.