Aides to former President Joe Biden reportedly changed his personal cellphone number and chewed out a reporter after he called the ex-commander-in-chief to get an interview.
According to the book How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America by Josh Dawsey of The Wall Street Journal, Tyler Pager of The New York Times, and Isaac Arnsdorf of The Washington Post, Pager got hold of Biden’s personal number and gave him a call in late March.
“Biden said he would be willing to speak for this book the next day,” the authors write. He answered the call the next morning and he criticized his predecessor and successor in the White House, President Donald Trump.
“I don’t see anything he’s done that’s been productive,” said Biden.
Asked about his thoughts on ending his 2024 re-election campaign, the former president said, “No, not now. I don’t spend a lot of time on regrets.”
He then hung up as he was boarding an Amtrak train.
It was then that Biden’s aides called and texted Pager on repeated occasions.
“After the first call, furious Biden aides repeatedly called and texted” Pager, the authors state.
Aides to the former president blocked Pager’s number and removed Biden’s number from use within two days.
When they later tried to call the president a Verizon recording could be heard.
“The number you dialed has been changed, disconnected, or is no longer in service,” it stated.
The incident follows reports that Biden had a tightly managed inner circle during his time in the White House and during the 2024 campaign. The authors noted that Trump has a more freewheeling style and, at times, takes calls from reporters.
Pager wrote in The Times on Tuesday in a piece adapted from the book that, as he requested an interview with Biden on several occasions, his aides said the former president was working on a memoir that would conflict with his book.
One aide screamed at him, according to Pager.
“Others texted furiously, trying to figure out how I had obtained Mr. Biden’s phone number,” he writes.
His follow-up calls went straight to a voicemail that just said, “Joe” before the number was taken out of service.
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