Dear Ron Klain: We Need To Talk About Joe

Dear Ron Klain,

I’ll be frank: I’m writing to you as a way to reach your former boss, Joe Biden, whom you served with true loyalty and administrative excellence when you were White House chief of staff from 2021 to 2023. Being president is at the best of times an isolating job—but that has been even more true of Biden, whose schedule and access to visitors has been tightly controlled by a protective staff. One of the many good qualities you had as chief of staff is that you yourself didn’t succumb to the isolation of the White House. You were notable for keeping the lines of communication open to all wings of the party, from blue dogs like Senator Joe Manchin to Democratic Socialists like Bernie Sanders. Every wing of the party felt genuinely listened to, and this made possible a legislative record greater than that of any Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson: lower health care and drug costs, much-need infrastructure spending, and the beginnings of a Green New Deal that could save humanity itself. Both you and President Biden have much to be proud of.

After Thursday’s disastrous debate, Biden is even more isolated than before, just as he faces the momentous decision of whether to continue his campaign. As reporting from Axios and The New York Times makes clear, Biden at this crucial juncture is relying on a very small coterie of people he personally trusts: his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, his sister Valarie Biden, longtime friend Ted Kaufman, and a few trusted advisers. You belong to this small select group that Biden turns to in a moment of crisis. You should use the trust you’ve earned wisely.

This country faces a crisis which could not be more acute. Donald Trump is again the Republican nominee and he enjoys a stubborn lead over Biden in polls. A second Trump presidency would be a disaster for American democracy, perhaps even terminal. Trump plans to rule like an autocrat, complete with retribution against his political enemies, a politicization of the civil service, mass deportation of migrants, and a rollback of civil rights.

Yet, with all that at stake, Biden’s performance in the debate was mortifying: His halting, uncertain voice and forgetfulness reinforced all the gnawing doubts voters have had that he is too old to be president. In the wake of the disaster, the Biden campaign tried to reassure voters by sending out polls showing the race is still competitive even as Biden trails. But a closer inspection reveals these polls themselves show that Biden’s age—something no amount of spin can change—is his great handicap. As Rolling Stone notes, a 538/Ipsos poll cited by the Biden campaign “found that after the debate, only 20 percent of likely voters said that Biden has the mental fitness to be president, and 15 percent said he has the physical fitness to be president. Nearly 60 percent of likely voters said Biden has ‘poor’ or ‘terrible’ mental or physical fitness.”

Nor is the public’s perception on this matter likely to grow more favorable to Biden. Under the strain of the campaign, we’ll surely see more verbal flubs. Moreover, now that this has become a campaign issue, the floodgates have opened and there are now a steady stream of embarrassing stories from aides and people who have met Biden, including from European officials in his travels abroad.

According to Axios, “From 10am to 4pm, Biden is dependably engaged—and many of his public events in front of cameras are held within those hours. Outside of that time range or while traveling abroad, Biden is more likely to have verbal miscues and become fatigued.” Some donors are mad at Biden’s staff for daring to allow the president to conduct a debate late at night (from 9 to 10:30 pm). But a president who can’t speak coherently at 9 pm is surely not one that voters would want to take the fabled 3 am phone call about an international crisis.

This is, to put it mildly, very distressing. Stories like this will only continue to leak out, a steady drip-drip-drip for the next four months, demoralizing Democratic Party voters and making it impossible for Biden to win back crucial independent voters.