Former President Joe Biden’s relentless dependence on a teleprompter, even in front of tiny groups of elite donors, sparked months of complaints from frustrated supporters, according to a new book chronicling the 2024 campaign.
Biden’s reliance on the teleprompter highlighted growing concerns about his mental fitness, supporters and donors revealed.
In the book “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” authors Josh Dawsey (Wall Street Journal), Tyler Pager (New York Times), and Isaac Arnsdorf (Washington Post) report that Biden rarely spoke in public without assistance from a teleprompter.
He even used it at private fundraisers where donors expected unscripted access.
“For most of the campaign, Biden only ever spoke with the assistance of a teleprompter, even for small private audiences,” the book states.
“The presence of the machine made for extremely awkward interactions in intimate settings, and irked donors who had paid thousands of dollars for a personal view of the president, not expecting a canned speech they could see on TV.”
The authors described one particularly awkward moment:
“He once read from a teleprompter in front of thirty people in the open kitchen of a Palo Alto mansion,” they wrote.
Donors “complained for months”