President Biden won the White House because the coronavirus kept him hidden in his basement and protected his campaign from the greatest liability – the candidate himself, reads a new book.
The Biden camp continued in part with the strategy of ‘you put your dumb uncle in the basement’, referring to the Democratic candidate, according to ‘Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely won the Presidency.’
Even former President Obama initially refused to support his 78-year-old former vice president and friend, worrying he could become a “tragicomic caricature of an older politician who had his last hurray” if it weren’t for himself be protected, the book reads.
The authors of the work – Jonathan Allen of NBC News and Amie Parnes of The Hill – repeatedly write ‘the stars in line’ for Biden, a former two-time hopeful president, who managed to pass his third try in spite of himself.
And no one has been caught more off guard than the Trump camp.
The story goes that in May, Trump saw Biden give a CNN interview and then asked Kellyanne Conway, the top assistant, “What do you think?”
Conway replied, “I think if we lose to him, we are pathetic,” the book says.
Trump laughed, say the authors of the book, who also wrote ‘Shattered’ about Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid in 2016.
“Until the COVID case came, we won four hundred ballots,” a source familiar with Trump’s internal numbers around February 2020 told the writers.
Even one of Biden’s top advisers, Anita Dunn, reportedly told a co-worker at one point, “COVID was the best thing that ever happened to him.”
In mid-March 2020, Biden’s team converted the basement of his home in Wilmington, Del., Into a temporary studio from which he could safely issue statements.
“They used coronavirus as an excuse to keep him in the basement, and that was smart,” a Trump adviser told the authors.
Biden was able to hide his greatest weakness, that is, himself. And he did so with an apology that sounded responsible. ‘
But Biden’s broadcast on the night of the March 17 primary was just strange, the book reads.
‘There was a hostage video quality to the broadcast. It was cloudy and dark, ”describes the book.
‘While he was speaking, there was a temporary delay that did not put Biden’s words apart with the movements of his mouth. This was the man who would send Donald Trump to Mar-a-Lago forever? ‘
One Biden assistant told the writers: ‘I was pulling together all the time. He seemed to not know what he was doing. ‘
Meanwhile, Obama ‘equated with former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke’ as a presidential candidate, although he eventually placed his influence behind his former vice president, whom he once compared to a brother, the book reads. .
And by the fall, Trump has “become his own invisible enemy,” the book reads.
“With less than a month to go before the election, Trump has just had a debate in which he managed to make the challenger look more presidential, he had little cash, he discouraged Republicans from voting by post, he said. “he contracted a disease that killed more than two hundred thousand of his fellow Americans, and he ignored advice to show just a hint of humanity,” the authors write.
“He could not see that he had injured himself.”
Biden within a month, Biden would have won the presidency with “a soft message and a white agenda,” the authors say.
Reps to the president on Tuesday did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.
-Additional reporting by Steven Nelson