On the eve of President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union address, Inside the Hive’s Joe Hagan talks to Chris Whipple, author of The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, which takes us inside the last two years of his presidency—from January 6 to the pandemic, Afghanistan to Ukraine—and offers insight into his future.
Biden, Whipple says, is running for president again, age and document investigations be damned. For Biden’s new chief of staff, Jeff Zients, however, Whipple has some stern advice on managing Biden’s age: “He’s an octogenarian, he’s running for reelection. Zients has got to make sure that he’s rested enough to do it.”
Biden was surprised, Whipple says, at the staying power of MAGA after the 2020 election and he is taking no chances, gearing up for the inevitable wave of Trumpism in 2024. “They believe that democracy is very much on the ballot in 2024,” Whipple says.
The following transcript excerpt has been edited for clarity and length.
Vanity Fair: Biden has succeeded on so many levels, and yet his image remains somewhat muted, you know?
Chris Whipple: Joe Biden is not gonna electrify the populace. He’s not Ronald Reagan, he’s not JFK. But this guy has been underestimated time and time and time again in his political career, most recently during the midterms, as we all know.
To bring the progressive wing of his party to the table, to keep them coherent, especially as we came into the midterms. How did that happen? He had Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on the one hand, but he was also stuck with the other side, a very loud and very demanding progressive wing.
I think the answer is a twist on the old expression. “Republicans don’t belong to any organized political party.” Those are the Democrats. They’re now an organized, disciplined party. And you have to give a lot of credit to Biden, but also to Ron Klain, who has all of the attributes of some of the great chiefs of staff, the Jim Bakers and the Leon Panettas.
Biden has a new chief of staff, Jeff Zients, without that deep personal relationship that Klain had. I wonder what you think that might mean for the White House?
He has a world-class temperament just like Klain, which is one of the attributes of the great chiefs like Baker and Panetta. He’s got all of that. What he lacks is political savvy and knowledge of Capitol Hill and those relationships, and this long relationship with the boss. He has a good relationship with Biden, but, you know, we’ll see whether he has the kind of relationship where he can sit down and second-guess Joe Biden’s political instincts. That’s a tough one, I think. There’s been much speculation that Biden will therefore now rely more heavily on Steve Ricchetti and Jen O’Malley Dillon and Mike Donlan and Anita Dunn for political advice. But I think it would be a real mistake to go that route because I think that yes, of course you can get their advice, but presidents learn, often the hard way, that you cannot govern effectively without empowering your chief of staff as first among equals.
Regarding Jill Biden, what do you think the conversation is between her and the president right now?
Well, she’s the only person who could talk him out of it. He’s running, there’s just almost no doubt in my mind. And I haven’t heard anybody suggest that Jill Biden is against it. If she is, then he may not go there, but I don’t think there’s any evidence that she is, and I think they’re talking about it. I suspect she’s saying that “if you feel you want to do it, you should go for it,” is my guess.
