White House efforts to shield Biden’s missteps are unraveling

The US president’s stumbling, faltering performance in a television election debate is not a one-off, with 15 or 20 similar instances in the last year

President Joe Biden will try to erase the image of over-shielded seclusion by granting an interview to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos tomorrow, an overture to the media that critics in his own party say should have immediately followed the debate fiasco. Photo: AP/Susan Wals

For three-and-a-half years, Joe Biden was wrapped in a metaphorical ball of cotton wool by an anxious White House staff eager to protect him from the worst of himself.

Worried about signs of ageing and an increasing propensity for verbal missteps, they cut press conferences and media interviews to a minimum. Meetings with members of Congress, frequent enough in his first year — despite it coinciding with part of the covid-19 pandemic — were whittled down by two-thirds by year three.