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Biden Reportedly Pushing His Aides To Let Him Be Himself Ahead Of Election

President Joe Biden is urging his aides to be their true selves in the run-up to the 2024 election, staffers and people close to the president told The New York Times.

As Biden battles concerns about his age, the president and those around him are considering a new strategy: “Joe is Joe” and interacting more often with the American people. according to To the New York Times. As part of the strategy, the White House is working to get Biden out of Washington, D.C., to engage in one-on-one experiences with voters and interact with them on social media, the NYT reported. (Related: Biden campaign reportedly has Taylor Swift endorsement at the top of its wish list)

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, told the show: “I've been telling the campaign for months, “Please make him Joe Biden,'' and so have many other members of Congress. ” he said.

Biden responded to a February social media clip in which former President Donald Trump compared himself to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Rob Flaherty, a top adviser to the president, told the NYT that Biden came up with the idea for the video himself.

“It came from his brain,” Flaherty told the magazine.

“He sometimes has more demands than I'm prepared to meet,” Flaherty said, adding that Biden sometimes rewrites his tweets and sometimes ad-libs in videos. He added that there is even.

The White House insists efforts to push Biden out of town are aimed at connecting with voters rather than addressing concerns about his age, but the president did question his fitness to be president in his State of the Union address. is expected to address concerns. His aides told the NYT on Thursday. Aides told the newspaper that the president plans to use his age to highlight his experience and accomplishments throughout his political career.

Supporters of President Joe Biden attend an “America's First” rally in Bluffton, South Carolina, on January 30, 2024. South Carolina continues to prepare for its next primary election on February 3rd (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Social media “content creators” are scheduled to meet with the president at campaign stops as efforts to get Biden in front of Americans, especially young people, ramp up, the NYT reported. .

“We have always known that the most effective way to reach the American people is when they can hear President Biden's case directly and honestly,” White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement. he told the New York Times.

Throughout his administration, Biden has relied on social media rather than traditional press conferences, according to the Washington Post.

Biden, in his fourth year in office, average As of January 20, about 11 press conferences are held annually, according to data compiled by the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His average number is the lowest since former President Ronald Reagan, who held an average of 5.8 press conferences per year during his tenure from 1981 to 1989.

“I don't think it's just a coincidence that these two presidents have an aging element. And I'm not saying he's going to fail because he's not Compos Mentis. I'm not saying that at all. No. What I'm saying is, I don't think it's a coincidence that in many cases, as presidents get older, they try to reduce this kind of press work. “The oldest president was Eisenhower, who was well known for having problems with syntax,” historian Barbara Perry, co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, previously told the paper. Told. Daily caller.

“I think that's part of what happens when you have an older president. It's about being able to react instantly and be responsive, to be honest. It's the press that applies pressure and asks questions. Instead, they ask pressing questions, sometimes adversarial, or at least pointed, to give the president controversial ideas about what they're doing and why. Sometimes we ask them to explain why they're doing something like that,” Perry continued.

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