For his events, President Biden’s staffers prepare a short document with large print and photos that include his precise path to a podium, according to an event template the White House sends to staffers.
Why it matters: Since the June 27 debate, some Democrats who’ve attended and helped set up Biden events have wondered whether his team’s focus on minute details were to obscure the 81-year-old president’s limitations — rather than just a reflection of a meticulous staff.
- “I staffed a simple fundraiser at a private residence, but they treated it like it was a NATO summit with his movements,” according to a person who staffed a Biden event in the past 18 months.
Driving the news: Before a presidential event, the White House sends event staffers a document to emulate when preparing their own materials for the president.
- One template — a copy of which was obtained by Axios — is short and simple, with one large picture of the event space on each page, accompanied with big text such as: “View from podium,” and “View from audience.”
- In the five-page document, two pages are separate pictures of, “Walk to podium.”
The staffer who helped with the fundraiser told Axios: “It surprised me that a seasoned political pro like the president would need detailed verbal and visual instructions on how to enter and exit a room.”
- A White House official told Axios: “If individuals are not accustomed to seeing advance teams work, that would be a common reaction, whoever the principal is.”
- Two former aides who worked with Biden during his vice presidency said that at that time his preparation documents were different, and more often relied on site diagrams.
Reality check: Organizing presidential events — often called “advance work” — is intensive and detail-focused for every commander-in-chief.
- Presidential movements are planned down to every footstep in ways that the movements of a vice president often are not.
- Advance documents also have evolved since Biden was vice president, including the increased use of smartphone photographs.
