Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain Was ‘Startled’ by Octogenarian’s Mental Decline Before Trump Debate: New Book

‘Halfway through the session, the president excused himself and went off to sit by the pool,’ according to book

In the days leading up to his disastrous June debate with Donald Trump, then-president Joe Biden appeared “extremely exhausted” and “unaware of what was happening in his own campaign,” longtime Biden aide Ron Klain reveals in a new book.

Klain, the White House chief of staff from 2021 to 2023, was “startled” by Biden’s declining mental and physical state when he went back to work for the octogenarian president in June 2024, according to excerpts from Chris Whipple’s upcoming book Uncharted published in the Guardian.

Klain had “never seen [Biden] so exhausted and out of it,” Whipple writes. “Biden was unaware of what was happening in his own campaign. Halfway through the session, the president excused himself and went off to sit by the pool.”

The revelation comes just days after the publication of Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, which also sheds light on Biden’s cognitive decline before he relinquished the Democratic nomination to Kamala Harris, the Guardian reported.

According to Whipple’s book, Klain described Biden as “just extremely exhausted” on the first evening of the debate preparation. The former chief of staff was also “struck by how out of touch with American politics” Biden was.

Klain had to cut short the two mock debates he had organized for Biden.

“The first was scheduled to last 90 minutes but Klain called it off after 45. The president’s voice was shot and so was his grasp of the subject,” Whipple writes. Less than 30 minutes into the second mock debate, Biden went off to bed, saying he was “just too tired to continue,” according to Whipple.

“The president was fatigued, befuddled, and disengaged,” Whipple adds. “Klain feared the debate with Trump would be a nationally televised disaster.”

Weeks later, Biden dropped out of the race in favor of Harris, who went on to lose to Trump.