New <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/us/politics/biden-aides-election-age.html">reporting</a> reveals an extraordinary isolation campaign by former President Joe Biden&#8217;s closest aides at the end of his term, with staffers screaming at reporters, changing his phone number, and blocking access from panicked Democrats trying to tell him the truth about his failing campaign.
The revelation appears in the recently published <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/754957/2024-by-josh-dawsey-tyler-pager-isaac-arnsdorf/">book</a> by a trio of legacy media reporters, titled &#8220;2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,&#8221; written by Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Dawsey, New York Times White House correspondent Tyler Pager, and Washington Post reporter Isaac Arnsdorf.
Pager, conducting research for the book, managed to obtain Biden’s cellphone number in March 2025. The former president quickly agreed to an interview despite his aides repeatedly turning down similar requests from Page for several months.
Asked if he regretted dropping out of the presidential race, Biden said in a dispassionate tone, “No, not now. I don’t spend a lot of time on regrets.” He then ended the conversation to board an Amtrak train, Pager <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/us/politics/biden-aides-election-age.html">recalled</a> for the Times.
Pager’s brief discussion with Biden reportedly sparked panic among the former president’s top aides. “After the first call,” the authors <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/bidens-team-scolded-reporters-changed-his-number-after-they-called-personal-cellphone-report/">report</a> in the book, “furious Biden aides repeatedly called and texted [Pager].”
“One screamed at me for calling the former president directly. Others texted furiously, trying to figure out how I had obtained Mr. Biden’s phone number,” Pager said.
Although Biden himself initially seemed open to continuing to talk to Pager, the reporter’s calls began to go straight to voicemail.
Within days, Pager’s calls were greeted with a message from Verizon: “The number you dialed has been changed, disconnected, or is no longer in service.”
The Times reporter writes that this incident is reflective of the insularity of Team Biden throughout his doomed presidential campaign.
Pager reports that instead of confronting Biden with the harsh reality after his disastrous debate performance, his inner circle restricted access to him, making it difficult for even longtime allies, such as Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, to connect with the president.
On his way to a fundraiser after the debate, Biden asked his traveling aides aboard Air Force One what people were saying about his performance.
Rather than providing an accurate assessment, they offered what witnesses described as a &#8220;sanitized version&#8221; of the situation.
According to Pager, Biden’s aides never even allowed him to meet with campaign pollsters, instead presenting Biden with overly optimistic outlooks that alarmed campaign staff.
Following the debate, campaign pollsters presented their findings to Biden&#8217;s advisers, and their conclusion was damning: all polling indicated that Biden had no path to victory, and voters were not convinced that he was up for the job.
This assessment enraged Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the former president and chairman of Biden&#8217;s 2020 presidential campaign, who reportedly preferred a sanitized version of events.
“Two days after the presentation, Geoff Garin, one of the pollsters, checked in with Mr. Ricchetti. Mr. Ricchetti lit into him and said the presentation was out of line,” Pager reported. “It was not their job to tell them there was no path to victory. The pollsters, Mr. Ricchetti said, were supposed to provide the path to win.”
Rep. Pete Aguilar, a top House Democrat from California, confronted Ricchetti in a heated call, asking, &#8220;Do you realize how bad it is? Has anyone told the president how bad it is?&#8221;
When Ricchetti insisted that many members of Congress still supported the president, Aguilar pushed back: &#8220;Steve, has anyone walked into the Oval and told him we could lose everything?&#8221; Ricchetti admitted no one had.
According to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/us/politics/biden-aides-election-age.html">The Times</a>, the situation was so dire that reliable Democratic strongholds, including Virginia, Minnesota, and New Mexico, suddenly became competitive – a devastating development that Biden&#8217;s inner circle concealed from him.
When former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) met privately with Biden at the White House during this crisis period, she grew frustrated by his insistence that polling showed no real change since the debate.
At one point, Biden called his longtime adviser, Mike Donilon, to refute Pelosi&#8217;s claim that polls showed he would lose to Trump. Donilon got on the line and reportedly contradicted Pelosi&#8217;s assessment.
Campaign adviser Adrienne Elrod was so concerned that Biden wasn&#8217;t getting an accurate assessment that she contacted &#8220;Morning Joe&#8221; hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, knowing the president watched their show on MSNBC every morning.
Days before Biden dropped out, Scarborough aired these concerns, saying, &#8220;The anger I hear are the people who are keeping him in a bubble.&#8221;
Even when confronted directly by donors at a Hamptons fundraiser who challenged him on his debate performance, Biden dismissed concerns as &#8220;one bad night&#8221; and vowed to stay in the race. His closest aides brushed off the concerns as typical donor anxiety.
The controversy over Biden&#8217;s isolation mirrors similar concerns that arose during his presidency, when critics frequently questioned whether his staff was shielding him from unscripted interactions with the press and public.
Throughout his term, the White House faced persistent accusations that Biden&#8217;s handlers were deliberately limiting his exposure to mask cognitive decline – allegations his team consistently dismissed as partisan attacks despite mounting video evidence of verbal stumbles and confusion during public appearances.

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New Book Reveals Biden’s Inner Circle Took Drastic Steps To Limit Access, Shield Him From The Truth