It turns out that Joe Biden’s public persona as a jovial, grandfatherly, caring kind of guy isn’t who he is behind closed doors, according to a Monday report.
According to Axios, there is a renewed focus on the president’s purported temperament, including instances of him allegedly expressing anger and yelling at his aides in interrogative outbursts.
Sources within the administration revealed that “no one is safe” from experiencing the wrathful side of Biden, recalling a particular incident from years ago that aides still talk about when he confronted Jeff Zients (prior to becoming Biden’s chief of staff) during a shortage of Covid testing kits.
Axios noted further:
Behind closed doors, Biden has such a quick-trigger temper that some aides try to avoid meeting alone with him. Some take a colleague, almost as a shield against a solo blast.
The president’s admonitions include: “God dammit, how the f**k don’t you know this?!,” “Don’t f**king bullsh*t me!” and “Get the f**k out of here!” — according to current and former Biden aides who have witnessed and been on the receiving end of such outbursts.
Biden’s now infamous temper was described as “angry interrogations rather than erratic tantrums.” And while some aides have recounted the episodes as just his high expectations, others have said that his outbursts are part of an “internal initiation ceremony in this White House.”
“Biden’s defenders acknowledge he can be tough,” the report says. “But they also say he can be more generous and compassionate than many powerful politicians and can make them feel like family. That’s partly why so many aides have worked with Biden for decades, and go in and out of his orbit, they say.”
Despite Biden’s usual portrayal of himself as a composed and steadying figure in public, there are purported discussions among some members of his team about the potential benefits of occasionally allowing his temper to surface. The idea behind that is a belief that it could counteract persistent doubts regarding his age and vitality.
In September 2021, a book revealed that soon after Biden took office, he raged about former President Donald Trump’s presence in the White House with a vulgar outburst.
In the book “Peril,” journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa detail the beginning months of Biden’s administration.
Of note, Woodward busts Biden for calling the White House a “tomb,” which is certainly something that the mainstream media would have attacked Trump for had he said that.
Biden also reportedly referred to Trump as a “f**king a**hole.”
Biden and his advisers hated to utter Trump’s name, Woodward and Costa write, and aides “frequently warned each other to please avoid the ‘T’ word.” In the White House one night, Biden discovered a room where a huge screen covered the wall, which Trump used to virtually play famous golf courses, according to the book.
“What a f**king asshole,” Biden once said of Trump, according to the authors.
CNN also noted in its report on the book that Biden was not “comfortable” in the White House:
It wasn’t a comfortable transition. Biden started privately calling the White House “the tomb,” and he found the White House cold and lonely, according to the book.