© Provided by Washington Examiner President Joe Biden, who has marketed himself as a model of political civility, reportedly has a short fuse when it comes to policy debates among his staff.
During his more than 100 days in the White House, Biden has unleashed several profanity-laced outbursts during meetings when his aides fail to balance providing sufficient detail, which he has demanded, and avoiding "responses laced with acronyms or too much policy minutiae" when he is trying to make a big decision, according to a New York Times report on Friday.
He'll also quip that the speaker should talk in plain English and will hang up the phone when he feels someone is wasting his time, the report added.
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"He hates blandishing fast-talk that sounds like doublespeak," Chris Jennings, a former health policy aide who spoke with Biden frequently during his time as vice president, told the outlet. "Doesn't trust it, and he's certain voters loathe it."
In one incident on March 30, the president is said to have lashed out against Xavier Becerra, the secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, after he failed to answer questions regarding the ability of the agency to care for migrant children.
Although trips to meet with the president are described as "difficult," the report insists that Biden's outbursts don't match the angry rants toward staff delivered by former President Donald Trump during his time in office.
Biden aides also said the president can be unexpectedly warm at times.
"After a grueling briefing for his phone call with Mr. Putin on Jan. 26, Eric Green, the senior Russia director at the National Security Council, mentioned that Mr. Biden had met his daughter, then about 3 years old, on a visit to Moscow a decade earlier," the report said. "Moments later, the president was on the phone to say hello to Mr. Green's daughter, now 13 and attending school from home because of coronavirus restrictions."
The report, which is based on accounts from current and former officials, offered an example of the struggle Biden's team has in staying on the same page as the president. Highlighted is a March 31 discussion involving Gina McCarthy, the White House's national climate adviser, and Ali Zaidi, her deputy, in which they wanted to talk about the global effect of climate policies they supported, but Biden instead focused his questions on workers in Pennsylvania.
"We walked through each of those specific occupations, those specific tasks that people do," Zaidi told the outlet. "And he probed on, you know, 'And how much do these folks make?' and 'How many of them are there in southwestern Pennsylvania?' and 'OK, you told me about this geothermal resource, but does this geothermal resource exist in West Virginia?'"
"You become so hyperprepared," Dylan Loewe, a former speechwriter for Biden, said. "'I've got to answer every conceivable question he can come up with.'"
The report said Biden's staff have learned to adapt to the routine of the 78-year-old taking his time in meetings and in making big policy decisions as he goes through what some in the West Wing consider a Socratic "journey" before he arrives at a conclusion.
"They have padded his schedule with 15-minute breaks because they know he will not finish on time. He is allowed 30 minutes for lunch - a rotation of salad, soup and sandwiches - and because of the pandemic, rarely eats with people other than Vice President Kamala Harris, with whom he has a weekly lunch," the report said.
"He has a kind of mantra: 'You can never give me too much detail,'" said Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser.
On the day of his inauguration, Biden issued a stern warning to appointees at a swearing-in ceremony about treating one another with respect.
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"I am not joking when I say this: If you are ever working with me, and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you, I will fire you on the spot. No ifs, ands, or buts," he said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the White House for comment on the new report but did not immediately hear back.
Tags: News, Joe Biden, Biden Administration, White House
Original Author: Haley Victory Smith
Original Location: Biden swears in outbursts of frustration with aides: Report