A former Biden White House official has claimed that his colleagues deliberately “gaslit” the public and journalists who raised concerns about former President Biden’s age and cognitive abilities.
Speaking at a Wednesday seminar hosted by Puck reporter Tara Palmeri at the Sine Institute of Policy and Politics at American University, Michael LaRosa, a longtime press secretary for former First Lady Jill Biden, revealed efforts within the administration to shield Biden from media scrutiny, Fox News reported.
Throughout the 2024 presidential race, many media pundits and commentators rushed to Biden’s defense amid speculation about his mental acuity. This included reactions to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report describing Biden as well-meaning but forgetful, viral videos of him appearing confused, and a Wall Street Journal report detailing concerns about his behind-the-scenes demeanor.
While LaRosa was reluctant to label these efforts as a “cover-up,” he acknowledged that the White House had been aware from “day one” that former President Biden’s age was a concern.
He also disclosed that his colleagues actively downplayed and dismissed data indicating that Biden’s poll numbers had stagnated leading up to the 2024 election.
Despite polls showing that the majority of Americans believed Biden was too old to serve a second term, many journalists dismissed concerns about his health as a right-wing conspiracy.
These worries reached a breaking point after Biden’s shaky debate performance in June, which led to mounting pressure for him to withdraw from the race.
“There are some things that are true. I mean, like the gaslighting, there was a lot of denial of the polling. And I will use the term gaslight because that’s what they were doing the campaign, former colleagues,” LaRosa told Palmeri.
“The message to everybody was to make sure that you tell people it’s too early. It’s too early. These polls don’t mean well; it became too early, and these polls don’t mean anything,” he continued.
According to LaRosa, the White House eagerly touted favorable polling data when Biden was ahead but suddenly dismissed its significance once his lead began to slip.
He also criticized the administration’s aggressive stance toward left-leaning outlets like The New York Times, which came under fire after it began covering Biden’s polling struggles and age concerns in mid-2024, Fox noted.
Reports from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other outlets have since revealed that some of Biden’s closest advisers had expressed concerns about his health since the early days of his administration. However, the White House repeatedly brushed off questions about his cognitive abilities, even dismissing viral videos of Biden appearing confused or out of step as “cheap fakes.”
“I think if you were watching MSNBC, you probably believed [the White House] and were probably pretty shocked. But if you were, if you were consuming information, consuming data and looking at it objectively and trying to interpret it and process it objectively, then none of it was surprising,” LaRosa said.
The former White House official also claimed that Biden’s team was “scared to death” about allowing the then-president to engage in impromptu and unrehearsed press conferences. He told Palmeri that Biden simply “couldn’t compete for the attention economy.”
“They just couldn’t do it. They didn’t have any idea. And they didn’t have the vessel either in Biden, by the way, who would have done anything. He loves TV. He loves doing stuff. It was the orbit that did not trust their own candidate,” he added.
Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reflected on the “shocking” nature of Democratic Party leaders turning against Biden, ultimately pressuring him to step aside from the race at an event this week.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, Jean-Pierre was asked to share insights into the challenges she faced during the three weeks following the debate, leading up to Biden’s decision to step down, as well as whether he should have run for reelection in the first place.
“I had never seen anything like it before. I had never seen a party do that in the way that they did, and it was hurtful and sad to see that happening,” the former White House press secretary added. “A firing squad around a person who I believe was a true patriot, a person who I believe did everything that he can for this country.”