A startling new account from the book “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America” has shed further light on just how aggressively Joe Biden’s inner circle worked to shield him from the public—and from unfiltered media access—during his time in office.
The book’s authors, who interviewed President Trump directly, attempted to speak with then-President Biden. His staff declined, claiming he was “working on his memoir.” But according to journalist and co-author Tyler Pager, that excuse didn’t hold up. Pager reached out to Biden on his private phone, and surprisingly, Biden agreed to talk.
The conversation, however, was brief—and revealing.
3/ This excerpt from the book — penned by @tylerpager and two other political reporters and called “2024” — is pretty stunning stuff: pic.twitter.com/QnKshF6mVg
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) July 9, 2025
Biden told Pager he had a “very negative” view of Trump’s second term and didn’t see anything productive in it. He also confirmed he had no regrets about dropping out of the 2024 race. “No, not now. I don’t spend a lot of time on regrets,” Biden said before abruptly ending the call to catch a train.
But what followed was pure chaos inside the Biden operation.
According to Pager, one staffer screamed at him for contacting Biden directly. Others frantically texted and scrambled to determine how Pager had obtained the number. And just as quickly as the communication began—it was cut off. Although Biden himself had said he was open to future contact, Pager’s follow-up calls went unanswered. Within two days, the phone number had been disconnected.
Pager detailed the episode on Kara Swisher’s podcast this week, prompting Swisher to bluntly remark: “This is why they lost.”
4/ The truth exposed by that anecdote from Tyler is this: The Biden inner circle simply believes that Biden himself is no longer to be trusted in any sort of non-staged interaction.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) July 9, 2025
Former CNN analyst Chris Cillizza also weighed in, saying Biden’s staff had essentially concluded he could no longer be trusted in any non-staged setting.
This confirms what many Americans already suspected: Biden wasn’t running the show—his staff was. And their top priority appeared to be protecting him from even brief, unscripted exchanges with reporters.
Throughout his presidency, legacy media mostly downplayed or ignored the signs. Incidents were brushed off as “gaffes” or “fatigue,” while those who questioned Biden’s capacity were dismissed as partisan. Now, with Biden out of the 2024 race and media loyalty thinning, the stories are surfacing—too late for transparency, but not too late for accountability.
Sorry man, you don’t get to just walk away from this one like it never happened.
All you should be doing is apologizing and applying for an honorable line of work, like at Home Depot or something. https://t.co/04tm3jsWvu pic.twitter.com/E3bC4nb2Fx
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 9, 2025
The House of Representatives is now preparing to call former Biden officials to testify, likely putting this type of orchestrated information suppression under direct scrutiny. If staffers deliberately concealed the president’s condition, it could have major implications for how power was exercised—and by whom—inside the Biden White House.
