WASHINGTON
Former President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill, have begun their bid to rehabilitate their self-sabotaged reputations.
Sen. John Fetterman, meanwhile, is dealing with reputational sabotage caused by his own party and staff. (More on him in a bit.)
First, the Bidens. The couple appeared on ABC’s “The View” Thursday, a friendly left-leaning venue. President Donald Trump has been talking up a storm to working journalists, friendly and not friendly. Yet again, even after slanting the deck, the Bidens’ efforts to look better only made them look worse.
As a Republican, I have my list of problems with Biden. Short version. The border. Hunter and Burisma. The big spending. Inflation.
Democrats have reason to be angrier at him than I am. Biden should have announced he was not running for re-election before the disastrous debate. If there had been a robust Democratic primary, it’s possible Donald Trump would not be president today.
No worries. Biden is in denial. He even said he would have beat Trump if he’d stayed in the race. No one on “The View” countered that Biden’s continued candidacy would be bad for America.
What’s he doing now? Biden said that he is writing a book. He could name it, ”My son did nothing wrong.” No joke.
“The Morning Meeting” host Mark Halperin posited that at Biden Inc., “the trough is empty.”
Son Hunter is $15 million in debt, according to Daily Mail sources.
The family needs big money to support the lavish lifestyle to which it has become accustomed, so “The View” performance was the beginning of their money quest, Halperin reasoned.
Problem:
Many former presidents hit the international speaking trail, where they get six-figure paydays for one talk. Biden is not in their league.
The former president likes to see himself as an honest broker who put country before self, but the public sees a man who clung to power, the consequences be damned. He has a lonely road ahead.
Which brings us back to Fetterman, the hoodie-wearing, shorts-not-pants Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, who has been targeted by the left because of his support for Israel and a trip to Mar-a-Lago, where he met with the Republican president.
Biden aides covered up his mental decline. But Fetterman’s staff spilled to New York Magazine about the freshman senator’s mental health and their doubts as to whether he is sticking with his treatment program. (In 2023, Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed Medical Center, where he was treated for depression for six weeks.)
New York Magazine’s Washington correspondent, Ben Terris, reported Fetterman’s former chief of staff Adam Jentleson wrote a letter to a Walter Reed neuro-psychiatrist that he was worried his boss was “on a bad trajectory.”
“No one is saying every controversial position (for example, his respectful relationship with Trump) stems from his mental health — but it’s become harder for them to tell which ones do,” Terris wrote.
Why mention controversial positions if the story is just about mental health?
Fetterman dismissed the story as thinly sourced.
Well, here’s a tidbit by AP about a Fetterman meeting with a local teachers’ union.
“As the meeting deteriorated, a staff member moved to end it and ushered the visitors into the hallway, where she broke down crying. The staffer was comforted by the teachers who were themselves rattled by Fetterman’s behavior, according to a second person who was briefed separately on the meeting.”
You can believe that Fetterman’s staff may well have been genuinely worried about his well-being and still shudder at the double standard. Ditto the ease with which anonymous aides can smear the boss.
And when you look at the Fetterman story, you have to wonder: Why weren’t there more anonymous aides at the Biden White House?
Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.