‘How the F*** Don’t You Know This?!’ Axios Dishes on Biden Yelling at WH Aides and ‘Quick-Trigger Temper’

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‘How the F*** Don’t You Know This?!’ Axios Dishes on Biden Yelling at WH Aides and ‘Quick-Trigger Temper’

By Ken MeyerJul 10th, 2023, 7:33 am

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President Joe Biden has an explosive temper that has caused White House aides to dread meetings with him, according to a new report that paints the president in a different light than the whispering and jovial figure he presents publicly.

An Axios report published Monday delves into his purported temper and tendency to yell at aides in angry interrogative outbursts. Administration sources told the outlet “no one is safe” from this wrathful side of Biden, and that his aides still talk about an incident when he stormed at Jeff Zients (before he became Biden’s chief of staff) when there was a Covid testing kit shortage years ago.

From the report:

 

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: “G.............it, how the f*** don’t you know this?!,” “Don’t f***** bull.... me!” and “Get the f*** out of here!” — according to current and former Biden aides who have witnessed and been on the receiving end of such outbursts.

Biden’s temper is described as “angry interrogations rather than erratic tantrums.” Some of his aides described these episodes as reflecting his high expectations, while others regard Biden’s yelling as 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.”

While Biden typically tries to represent himself as a calm and stabilizing presence publicly, some on his team reportedly wonder if he should allow his temper to show itself at times if it can counteract the recurring concerns about his age and vigor. Axios notes that it has happened before, as exemplified when Biden was caught on a hot mic calling Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a .........

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Old yeller: Biden's private fury

In public, President Biden likes to whisper to make a point. In private, he's prone to yelling, Axios' Alex Thompson reports.

• 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.

Why it matters: The private eruptions paint a more complicated picture of Biden as a manager and president than his carefully cultivated image as a kindly uncle who loves Aviator sunglasses and ice cream.

• Some Biden aides think the president would be better off occasionally displaying his temper in public as a way to assuage voter concerns that the 80-year-old president is disengaged and too old for the office.

? Behind the scenes: Senior and lower-level aides alike can be in Biden's line of fire. "No one is safe," said one administration official.

• Biden aides still talk about how angry he got at Jeff Zients, then the administration's "COVID czar," in late 2021 when there was a shortage of testing kits as the Omicron variant spread. The rage was temporary: Zients is now Biden's chief of staff.

Biden's temper comes in the form of angry interrogations rather than erratic tantrums.

• He'll grill aides on topics until it's clear they don't know the answer to a question — a routine that some see as meticulous and others call "stump the chump" or "stump the dummy."
• The White House declined to comment.

Biden tries to conceal his temper in public but occasionally has shown flashes of it — and some former aides have written about it.

• In January 2022, he was caught on a hot mic calling Fox News' Peter Doocy a "stupid son of a bitch."

"There's no question that the Biden temper is for real. It may not be as volcanic as Bill Clinton's, but it's definitely there," said Chris Whipple, author of "The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House."

• Whipple's book quotes former White House press secretary Jen Psaki as saying: "I said to [Biden] multiple times, 'I'll know we have a really good, trusting relationship when you yell at me the first time.'"
• Whipple notes: "Psaki wouldn't have to wait long."

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? Part 2: "Speaking Biden"

Being yelled at by the president has become an internal initiation ceremony in this White House, aides say: If Biden doesn't yell at you, it could be a sign he doesn't respect you, Alex Thompson writes.

• Ted Kaufman, Biden's longtime chief of staff when the future president represented Delaware in the Senate, told Axios that Biden's process is policy-driven, and has made him a strong executive. "If there is something that's not in the brief, he's going to find it," he said.

? What we're hearing: Biden aides argue that the president's rages reflect his high expectations for his staff.

• "Speaking Biden" is a particular skill, they said. It can take years to learn to navigate his moodiness, and anticipate what information he's going to ask for in a briefing.

Administration officials, many of whom went to elite schools, can struggle with Biden's demand to ditch wonky, acronym-filled language and brief him as if they were talking to a close family member who isn't in the D.C. bubble.

• Biden's defenders 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.

Jeff Connaughton, a former Biden campaign and Senate aide who was chief of staff to Kaufman when he filled Biden's seat in the Senate, wrote about Biden's temper in his 2012 book on Washington corruption, "The Payoff: Why Wall Street Wins."

• Connaughton told of a time during the 2008 presidential campaign when a 23-year-old fundraising staffer got into the car with Biden.
• "Okay, senator, time to do some fundraising calls," the aide said. Biden responded by looking at him and snapping: "Get the f**k out of the car."

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